The Pity Party

Hate. This. Situation. So. Much.

I used to get out with a bunch of other libra friends and stopped just because of this stupid habit. They seemed to get together just to launch a complaining competition. I really enjoy their company, separately. But I would prefer torture to another "hanging out" day with them, that seemed to develop under this premise:

"There are a billion of interesting topics out there, shure. But why should we even start thinking about them and have a good time when we can complain endlessly about how shitty is our existence in this shitty part of the milky way? is not only predictable and boring, but also worthless, so is a perfect issue for small talk! There's no solution: the universe is doomed, life sucks and we're the misery kings. Hurray"

Let's put it this way: let's say it's grandma who's talking instead of a group of friends. You love old granny, but your evening perspective doesn't include 84 minutes of "why me?" and negative thinking. You have lots of different options:

a) Shut up and stay there nodding. Supposedly the right thing. It's granny.
b) Join in the cry and mourn (I feel you granny, no future) to speed up the process.
c) Put things in perspective (let's talk about the bright side, granny!)
d) Humour and sarcasm.
e) Jump through the window and burn yourself kamikaze style .

Well, d) seems all right to me. It's amazing how many conversations can be ended educately just by not been that serious with the matter and changing the subject casually. And if your grandma is just a tragic figure, go ahead and put her funny cat's videos. That never fails. Unless the depressive leader is your boss: no cat would save that man from eternal grumpiness. Your partner? dog videos. Your work colleagues? Forget the animals, make fun of your boss. But maybe you are the one who always throw the party?

I'm curious. Do you find yourself trapped in this situations regularly? How do you manage to kill this stuff?

1. Tell them their excessive negativity is irritating.

2. Join in pretending everyone thinks it's a competition. Tell some super sad story and say "that's gotta win this round" or something. Exagerate everything and claim "bonus point" at very sad moments of your story.

3. Turn it into a country song and get rich.