Rankled and Less Burdened By It

Very interesting about the post below. By defining what rankles me, I realize that I have been able to "let go" and feel less burdened. Should I have been burdened in the first place? That's open for discussion. But I'd say that if some person of my acquaintance manifests one of the rankling traits, then yes, I will be rankled. Avoiding some people is nearly impossible if I'm in the same circle of friends. I don't want to cut myself off from all the other people in that circle, so I cannot totally avoid the rankling person. If it's an e-group, of course the delete key becomes my best friend. If it's an e-stalker, creating a file for the offending emails or simply blocking the person's email are two options open to me.

If it's just one individual acquaintance, avoidance after confrontation (or without confrontation) is fairly easy. The gossip that flies from that individual will be ignored by true friends and used as fodder by someone trying to rankle me. But then, using that fodder proves that a heifer is a heifer and doesn't range far from her dung.

Dirty diaper litterers and litterers of other cast-offs, from beer containers to anything loose in the car will probably always be with us. Except in my County, if I get the person's Tag Number and turn it in, the owner of the Tag will receive a County Letter telling them they've been reported and if they're reported a second time, they'll be fined. Don't know how that program is working, but it's a good idea because it lets the person who sees the littering actually do something constructive to try to stop at least one person from littering. If that person even cares.

And maybe that's the bottom line. If you care about other people, you don't gossip. If you care for "Mother Earth" then you don't litter. If you think it doesn't matter what you do . . . you're wrong, but you're more likely to litter and to gossip.