Nuggets of the New Thought: Several Things That Have Helped PeopleAtkinson, William Walker
Philosophy
Nuggets of the New Thought: Several Things That Have Helped People
Atkinson, William Walker
New Thought
Don't retail your woes. Do you think that it does you any good to go
around with a long face, telling your tale of woe to everyone whom you
can induce to listen to you? Do you think that it does you any good?
Do you think it helps you to overcome your troubles, or makes your
burden any lighter? No, I don't believe that you think any such
things. All your experience teaches you that people do not like to
listen to long-drawn-out tales of your troubles--they have enough of
their own. Even those who are always ready to lend a helping hand and
to give what aid they can to one who needs it resent being made
targets for a continuous fusillade of troubles, woes, griefs, etc. And
you know very well that a constant repetition of your own woes will
only make them seem greater and more real to you. And then the chronic
retailer of woe grows to be like the journalist--develops a keen scent
for matter to be dished out to others--she needs it in her business.
When one gets into this habit of carrying about tales to her friends,
she runs out of ready material, and eagerly looks around for more with
which to supply the demand. She becomes quite an adept at discovering
insults, sneers, double-meaning remarks, etc., on the part of her
friends and relatives, where nothing of the kind was intended, and she
rolls these things over and over in her mind like sweet morsels before
she serves them up with appropriate trimmings, to her listeners.
You will notice that I say "her," in speaking of the victim of this
demoralizing habit, and some of my readers of that sex will
undoubtedly take me to task for blaming it on the woman instead of the
man. Well, you all know my ideas about the equality of the
sexes--about their being different, but one being as good as the
other, with the odds a little in favor of the woman. But I feel
justified in saying that this habit is one that seems to have a
special liking for women, and it generally picks out a woman for its
victim in preference to a man. When a man acquires this habit, he
becomes such a nuisance to his friends and associates that sooner or
later he will notice that they avoid him, and the chances are that
some blunt fellow will tell him that he has no time for listening to
tales of this kind, and that if he, the complainer, would display the
same energy in attending to his business that he does to peddling
around tales about how badly he has been used, he would not need any
sympathy. But woman, God bless her, does not like to hurt the feelings
of others in this way--she suffers the infliction in silence, and then
tells her friends how she has been bored. She will listen to her
woe-retailing friend, and seem to sympathize with her, and say, "Oh,
isn't it dreadful;" "how could she speak so harshly of you;" "you poor
dear, how you must have suffered;" "how could he have treated you so
unjustly," and other things of that kind. But when the visitor goes,
she yawns and says, "Dear me, if Mrs. Groan would only try to say
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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