GET AN EARLY CURMUDGEON VACCINATION

“Have you ever heard of a curmudgeon?” the customer asked. To me
it sounded like the season’s latest flu virus – the curmudgeon
influenza. “I believe your last customer is a curmudgeon,” he
said. “He didn’t have a good word to say about anything.”

I had to agree with his observation. However, though I like to
read almost more than I like to eat ice cream (which is saying a
lot), his unusual word is one I had never come across. So, when
I got home I pulled out my Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary
and looked up his word. According to Webster a curmudgeon is “a
crusty, ill-tempered, and usually old man.”

Yep, that describes the customer he was talking about.
Fortunately, we don’t have many customers whose minds are so
infected. Yet, what’s sad is that many in the world who are ill
tempered and negative generally don’t realize it’s as a result
of habits of thought. It’s also sad that, though we have a
choice about the attitudes we carry into old age; too many
choose by their attitudes to be old long before their time.

The good news is that when the attitudinal disease we have
described is detected in the early stages, a full-blown case can
be prevented or cured. Let’s look at two preventive measures.

The first thing one can do to prevent becoming a curmudgeon is
to stop talking about how bad the world is. Since the first days
of chewing tobacco, park benches and town squares old men have
been chewing and spitting while telling one another that the
world is going you know where in a hand basket. And, today, in
various gathering places (like barbershops), such is still
heard.

Every time someone says how bad things are, I’m tempted to ask,
“Well, how are YOU doing in the midst of such?” Indeed, world
conditions could certainly be a lot better. However, students of
history know that they have certainly been a lot worse.
Additionally, a person that knows much about the Civil War era
knows the horrible condition of our country during that period.

So, all things considered, when we drive fine automobiles, eat
well, live in nice homes and wear the best of clothes; it seems
somewhat incongruous to talk of how bad things are.

Secondly, to avoid the curmudgeons, refuse to engage in
self-pity. The P.L.O.M. (poor little old me) disposition is a
sure sign that one needs an attitudinal checkup. At the onset,
treatment might involve visiting a children’s hospital, a burn
ward or a cancer facility.

Too often we don’t take time to truly count our blessings; and
become somewhat like the little old lady (curmudgeon) who said
she always felt bad, even on days when she felt good, for fear
she would feel worse tomorrow. Being thankful for today is
strong vaccine when it comes to treating self-pity and the
hardening of the attitudes that is evident in curmudgeons.

BARBER-OSOPHY: Today’s curmudgeons are the negative,
pessimistic, self-pitying cynics of yesterday.

Copyright 2004, Sumerlin Enterprises.

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