Say Something Nice
Author: Bill Roberts
It’s tiresome listening to people whose
first inclination is to utter negative
words about someone – an acquaintance,
celebrity, politician – or something -
a ball game, movie or TV sitcom.
It’s irritating because, pretty quick,
I’m inclined to do the same thing,
jump right on the person or thing and
say those famous words, “I don’t like.”
It’s easy, spilling those words, and then
completing a sentence or two on the subject.
Whoever I’m talking to will support me
with a backup negative comment, and we
go off feeling like we’ve just done
something important – dissed a dissable.
But what’s the profit in it, always hitting
below the belt instead of aiming higher?
There surely was something good about
the movie, the meal, the episode on TV,
a neighbor, movie star, even a windy pol.
So, I’ve taken the pledge to start such
conversations in the other direction,
beginning with, “You know, one thing
I really liked about…” Soooo much nicer.
When asked a stumper, like what do you
think about these last eight years, courtesy
of the Bush administration, I pause and
consider, can’t come up with anything nice
to say, so I take another tack – say nothing.
Hey, saying nothing is hard to do, too.
Note: An editorial sort of poem. Don’t you get tired of negativism all the time? There are people you and I both know who thrive on it. My kid brother Jim, the sage, once told me: “Get all the negative people out of your life – they’ll just pull you down with them.” Good advice, maybe. Funny thing is….haven’t heard from Brother Jim since he uttered that, what, ten years ago. Just kiddin’…
