R and I live in a wonderful community with woods and walking trails, 2 lakes-one with a beach and floating dock for swimming and one that we stock for fishing. Most of our neighbors have kids and we can let our kids outside to play without having to be overly concerned for their safety. It's truly a town stuck in a time warp and we love it.
R is the current president of our little neighborhood association and I have recently starting doing a newsletter for the neighborhood. We have 78 homes in our community and almost everyone who lives here is pleasant.
Except 2 couples. One of them is the recent past-president. He's a social man but he's a hot-head and pretty controlling. He seems to be very bitter that he wasn't voted in again for a board position and he seems to be angry at R because he is the new president (although R didn't run against this man, he accepted a nomination afterwards, when we didn't have a president).
The other to people are the wife of the past-president and their neighbor. They seem to have a grudge against anything that's happening in the community. R ignores them and basically only deals with them when he absolutely has to. He's much better at staying neutral and not getting emotionally involved. When they attack him (publicly through email and letters to our entire community) I get upset.
This morning, I was happily walking my children and my dog on a blissfully sunny day distributing the newsletter that I had just finished publishing. It was the kind of experience that made me feel good to be alive, there was a light breeze, trees are in bloom, people were out and about and and I was proud of the newsletter I had recently put together. I was sure there were some errors in it, but for the most part, it's a good piece of work and doing it helps me maintain some level of intellectual use of my brain.
I just put the kids down for a nap and checked my email and there were 3 emails-one from each of the people I mentioned above and they completely ripped me apart for the newsletter. They found so many things "wrong" with it and they proceeded to point every single thing that they saw "wrong" out. The negativity was overwhelming and quite frankly, depressing.
I know they are trying to evoke an emotional response from me, which they have. However, instead of responding to their emails and the demands they have made regarding an explanation of some of the errors (um, they were mistakes?) I have chosen to vent my frustration here and delete their emails.
But, I just don't understand how people can be so petty and expend so much energy creating negativity. It's just mind-boggling.
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3 comments:
Oh, April. That would get me so upset. I take criticism far too personally, and there is no way I wouldn't still be fuming over an attack like that. I am so sorry. How silly can some people be?!? A neighborhood newsletter? THAT is worth hostility and anger?!!? I feel sorry for these people. I can't imagine how they find anything to be happy about.
Sometimes I feel like we are living the same life, but with different situations. More later . . .
WOW! Feeling happy, accomplished, content? Leave it to the local crank to quash any good feelings you may have. I have had to deal with a student this semester who, like your neighbors, is a malcontent. It sucks. I have been trying so hard to remember that he is probably miserable - feels like crap about himself . . . and his acting out is about him and not me. Oh. But, it is so hard not to take it personally. Good for you for deleting the emails. People like this are always trolling for trouble. When you don't give it to them, they have nothing.
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