Some People Suck

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Some people suck.  They take a lot—and by take a lot, I mean from the emotional well, not from any material perspective—and they seldom give anything in return.  When they do give something back, my brain gets so excited, like a $4 win on a penny slot machine, a dopamine hit, that I forget how many times I’ve pulled the emotional lever and come up broke.  Uggg.  Nothing nice to say.  No compliments.  No jokes.  No random observations.  No reaching out.  No gratitude.  Waiting on that next dopamine hit.

Other people don’t suck.  They seek me out to tell me something randomly nice–to show me a photo of their dog napping in a puddle of sunshine, to send me a “Pin” from Pinterest that makes me laugh.  They ring my phone to tell me jokingly that I suck because I haven’t called, and I tell them they suck because first of all I hate the phone and second, they haven’t called me either until now, and we laugh and talk about everything and nothing.

Self-help gurus will tell you to cut out the people who suck and only hang out with the good folks.  Self-help gurus don’t work in offices or cubicles or any such thing, obviously.  Sometimes self-help gurus are idiots; well-meaning, yes, but idiots about how real life goes.

If you’re reading this, you probably don’t suck (well, you might suck just a little).  Sometimes I suck.  I get all introverted and absorbed in whatever’s on my mind, and I don’t notice that I haven’t been reaching out.  I don’t mean to suck.  I mean to give back the love I receive.  I don’t mean to be a penny slot machine that only pays out once in a blue moon.  I mean to be a jackpot, receiving and giving, ding ding ding, lighting up those that share light with me.