Keeping it Lite

Coke Lite. I love Coke Lite.

"And what would be your drinks, ma'am?"

"Coke lite."

It's automatic. It's always my drink of choice.

I also automatically order San Might Light. Bacardi Light. Bud Light.

"You got a light?"

In life, I also like to approach things light. Why stress over things that will either turn out for the worse, or turn out for the better? In both cases, you can't really be ultimately sure of what the outcome will be. So why pull your hair out bothering?

Which brings me to why I am writing about being light. You see, I love this dear friend of my dearly. He's been there for me through the shittiest things imaginable. I could literally tell him everything. I could call him names, forget his birthday or flake on him, and we'd still be the best of friends. That kind of deep friendship.

But over the past few days of no work, we all know, and I've gone through the same shit like he has, the holidays have a way of exaggerating every minute emotion we feel, and he has been a real pain to be with.

I kinda got impatient and told him pointblack: "You know, each and every time you called me lately, all you do is complain."

He kinda got sore a bit, but it is the kind of friendship where I can say things like this, he'd get hurt a bit, think about it, and know the words come from a place of love.

Blame it on the cool weather, the lack of a structured environment like work and the 8 to 5 bit to keep one distracted, but I positively hate and am irritated and yes, turned off, by people who complain a lot. About the weather. About their love life (or the lack of). About their weight. What the bosses said. What the stupid client said. It just pisses me off.

Normally, it wouldn't. I am his sounding board. I should be used to these things. After all, I AM supposed to be the friend who would listen to all his shit.

But. And here is the but.

After you complain once, maybe to someone, maybe to yourself, you just go on and do something about it. Or if you can't do anything about it, deal with it.

And you know what else makes it irritating?

Because he reminds me that once in my life, I was once a pathetic complainer like him. And remembering that and having grown up and actualized to something who happily enough, isn't like that anymore (at least not all the time), I can only say, it is just so unattractive. Ewww.

And yes, I hate men who complain all the time. And from long years of experience, I have learned that there is an inverse correlation between the amount of time a person complains and the amount of time he spends doing something about it. Do-ers get all the action done. Nothing can be more attractive than a guy who does things. Makes things. Makes mistakes sometimes but ultimately, creates things. Give me a do-er any time.

And on that note, I quote Dr. Meredith Grey of Grey's Anatomy:

A couple of hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin shared with the world the secret of his success. Never leave that till tomorrow, he said, which you can do today. This is the man who discovered electricity. You think more people would listen to what he had to say. I don't know why we put things off, but if I had to guess, I'd have to say it has a lot to do with fear. Fear of failure, fear of rejection, sometimes the fear is just of making a decision, because what if you're wrong? What if you're making a mistake you can't undo? The early bird catches the worm. A stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we hadn't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to seize the day. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore. Until we finally understand for ourselves what Benjamin Franklin really meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping, and even the biggest failure, even the worst, beat the hell out of never trying.