Posted by JenStar on August 8, 2004, at 12:32:49
In reply to Rudeness, posted by Susan47 on August 5, 2004, at 11:48:02
I think it's definitely a skill (and a good one!) to be able to diffuse bad moods. And it's cool that you do this on occasion!Sometimes I try it too -- if someone is rude to me in a checkout line or some kind of office, I just smile and make some kind of friendly comment, even if I have satisfying mental visions of machine guns and heads coming off. [**would never, of course, actually act on this - don't worry. **] Often it has the effect of totally disarming the person, who then smiles and acts rueful and more human again.
Of course some people seem completely immune to this and take further offense at the friendly overture, almost as if this laughably feeble attempt were an insult to their intelligence and bad-mood bwahh-hah-hah power.
(I offer as an example some of the people at the Secretary of State bldg in Chicago...doing anything there that has to deal with a driver's license used to be enough to drive my human spirit into the ground....or maybe my on-again off-again powers of "niceness" are not strong enough -- must work on that!)
jenStar
> I agree, but it's fun sometimes to totally defuse someone's rudeness. If I'm in the right mood, and I usually try to be (sometimes that's a lot of work) it's a good feeling to be able to turn someone's negative attitude right around, in 30 seconds or less. People are so *different* when you can do that, it's really amazing, and a wonderful experience. Just my 2 cents.
poster:JenStar
thread:374008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040805/msgs/375330.html