Monday, February 16, 2009

self-effacing humor

I love making fun of myself. I laugh the loudest about jokes about me. It shows excellent self-esteem when you can laugh at yourself. It helps to build a strong mind and makes you not offended or vulnerable to idiotic taunts or insults.

I can help people lighten up and find their smile. I can help the sophomoric handle unresolved anger and deal with it in an adult way. It helps to respond to taunts by saying: "Ouch" or "Tell me something I DON'T know." The key is to not hit back. A bully wants a playmate. He wants a duel. When you render your tormenter into a Don Quixote... he is disarmed.

My Anon commenter sends me comments he believes will startle, shock, and hurt me. After he used those f and c words over and over... he jumped the shark. I now use the stuff as the basis for some very funny material.

He should have written an adult E-mail to me that expressed what it was or is that brings him to such a serious rage. It still gnaws at me that this is TWoP connected... The level of the mods' anger in bans sort of parallels the level of anger in my comments. A rational person doesn't enjoy the power of bans for absurd reasons. So while there may be others in my life whom I may have angered along the dopey internet way... they seem to all have lives and I do believe they would not still be giving me a second thought. My TWoP ban was a year ago... and of course I will never know the real ramifications of my protest letter. People write letters of protest to corporations all the time. All the time. About all sorts of things. But the fact that they knew I was "RedLipstick" is very revealing. It tells me my letter WAS called to their attention. He seems to be invested in my ban in some way...

During my 34 years of teaching, the principal received letters from parents about teachers all the time: too much homework, not enough homework, a reader that was too easy, reading material that was too difficult, seating assignments, the method of teaching math applications, test results, report card grades... the list goes on and on. One parent complained about a kindergarten teacher who gave her child a "time-out" after her child stabbed another student with a pencil. As professionals, we handled it all. We did not go into "fight back" mode.

Why do I think of my anonymous commenter so much? I feel bad for him. I do. Obviously he does not have to visit my blog and read it. Something about it or me enrages him. Instead of choosing to not read my blog, he still does.. and lashes out in babyish comments. He justifies it by comparing me to watching "a train wreck," another babyish activity. It's a form of low level entertainment. It's like sitting at a computer and making fun of "RobertBlue." I would so not spend one minute of my time participating in that nonsense. I would rather be tied to a chair and forced to watch "Ishtar."

A child thinks using the f and c words raise the taunt to the highest level. He has yet to express in some adult manner why he is so angry. If ever there was a poster person for anger management, he is my anon commenter.

Yes... I just might hang up a shingle that says: Marjorie, Life Coach.

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