I love the Internet for the breadth and depth of information it provides, and for the opportunity to read so many varying opinions on one subject. But sometimes I just have to walk away.
Case in point, I was doing research for a post and came across the following comment on an article:
“I take care of my parents. My children will take care of me. You want to force my children to take care of you too, meanwhile you arrogantly and selfishly live a much richer life style. Frankly, every GINK I’ve met was an arrogant, self-righteous, elitist. You should apologize for not adding to the future of our race.”
So after I ranted to myself about not expecting anyone else’s kids to take care of me, how our race of almost 7 billion people doesn’t need much adding to, and how narrow-minded this woman was to tar us all with the same “arrogant, self-righteous, elitist” brush, I stomped off and took a long, hot shower.
This woman was clearly on a mission (she posted about half a dozen comments to the same article) and I can’t believe I let her anger get under my skin.
It’s Whiny Wednesday. What’s under your skin today?
What gets under my skin? My brother! Why is it that even as adults siblings can still push our buttons and make us as angry as we were when were kids? I know I should be thankful that I have siblings and have a good relationship with them and that we all live relativley close to each other, but . . . my one brother can be annoying, embarrassing and condesending to me and to my friends and co-workers. If I was a parent, would I know how to alter a child’s poor behavior? As a sister, must I tolerate my brother’s poor behavior? Why do I let this affect me so?
What’s a “GINK”?
I’d like to respond tho that ignorant mother that I’m paying taxes to put her little hoodlums through school! An unfair painful duty that hits both my wallet and my psyche! People have some nerve.
My whine this week is that I hired a handyman to repair the roof of my utility room only to discover it still leaks. Naturally he has disappeared and I’m out my money and my trust. For an unemployed person, that’s enough to send me to the bed, which is exactly where I am now.
Why must people be such jerks???
I was talking to people in an internet community and made at comment at someones introduction post. Maybe it was not so nice or to critical. Anyway the Administrator pm’d me saying “you should write this to her via pm not publicly”. I wrote back to him that it’s up to myself to decide wether i write publicly or pm. And so could the other person speak up for herself if i hurt her! I then went back, apologized and deleted my first comment. The person in question reacted saying that she had seen my comment only after i deleted it, but she didn’t mind. but something in her post showed me that the Administrator had pm’d her as well to bring her attention to what i wrote about her! I then went back to pm the administrator to tell him that he had obviously fuelled a conflict which hadn’t even existed yet with his attempt to calm it down! And that i didn’t think that was a good way to moderate an internet forum. he then blamed me for not being able to take criticism. I mean, what?
I just googled “GINK” and found out I am one: green inclinations, no kids.
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-03-30-gink-manifesto-say-it-loud-im-childfree-and-im-proud
Well, let me put in a disclaimer: I am childless not by choice, but I do have green inclinations and I do not have kids.
“green inclinations” — Let’s see, I’m trying to take shorter showers, we sort our trash into recycling and compost, I pick up my dogs’ poop. Can I have “inclinations” (like, I wanna save the planet) vs. not really doing anything (to, like, actually save the planet) + I don’t have kids, so that makes me a GINK? And somehow I also get to be an “elitist”? I’m so confused.
I’m changing topics to add my whine to today’s list: Really pretty holiday red nail polish that chips within 24 hours of application. And that’s with an expensive top coat! And, no, I didn’t scrub dishes or do anything else that would speed the decline of my manicure. I’m doing a do-over with wussy sheer pink and pouting about it….
I don’t really understand the GINK-idea. I’m certainly “green inclined” but i just don’t get how not having kids is going to save the planet. I’ve many friends who are thoroughly green (more than me) and bring up their kids in a thoroughly green way. Like this couple with two little girls who live in an 200 year old farmhouse up in the mountains and breed bees. Of course she is not using disposable nappies for the kids etc. and they eat what they grow in their garden. She works on pedagogical projects to get children in touch with nature. He is a beekeeper by profession (apart from his own bees, he works for the federal office of agriculture – with bees). They have a car, because they live in such a remote place. It’s a little pickup truck so he can go to markets in the area and sell his honey. I don’t think there’s a television but they do both play several musical instruments. For a holiday, the go to see their parents.
Can you get any greener?
If you want to get radically green, choose a lifestyle like theirs, but don’t deny yourself children if you don’t have to.