jackasses

This week, Nancy and Erin have the following Red Writing Hood prompt for you and we think that this one is going to be fun!

Revision is about looking at a piece with a new-vision. Sometimes, it's about sprucing up the trim, but sometimes it's about knocking down walls. That's today's challenge. Go back in the archives and pick a fiction or nonfiction piece. Perhaps something you posted on your blog, or an old Red Dress Club prompt? Find something that you're proud of, but something you haven't read for awhile. Do a complete overhaul. Change the point of view. Write it from a different perspective. Try dialogue. Make it a narrative. Play with tense or organizational structure. You know, kill those babies.

Oh, and by the way? Trim it down to 400 words or less.

The world is full of a bunch of ignorant jackasses. Some may even be family members. You can try to fight their ignorance and try to get them to open their eyes a bit-  or you can choose the harder path... the one in which you sit back and watch them be... jackasses, but do so in a manner in which there is no hate. (Because once you hate, once you expel that negative energy to the Universe, you're just as big of a jackass as the ignorant ones. And yes, I've been a jackass before as have most of us, I think.)

It's not always easy to choose to go down the harder path, hence it being the harder path, but sometimes it can be a fun one. Sometimes, you get to watch from the sidelines as people who think they know it all stumble in their own shit (which stinks just as much as the next persons, by the way).  But, here's the thing: if you sit back and watch the ignorant jackasses with hatred brewing inside of you, it really won't be so entertaining- so there's another reason to save that energy that would be wasted on negativity.

It's taken me a really long time to grasp all this, to understand that there are things - lots and lots of things - out of my control that I just need to let be. If they aren't in my control, what's the use in getting all worked up over it? Why put myself in a bad mood because of someone else's ignorant behavior and/or actions? I'm better than that.

That's why I choose not to fight the ignorant jackasses. That's why I choose the harder path whenever I can. And I'll do my best to teach my daughter to do the same: Know that she is a good person, know that there are good people in the world, but that there are also a buttload of jackasses, too. Some might even be in her very own family. And just because these jackasses exist and may be everywhere, doesn't mean she has to join them.

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This revision stems from an entry I posted a month after starting this blog. Back when I had no readers. It's a long one so I'd rather link to it, than copy and paste. While it was kind of fun to go back in time and read something I haven't even thought of much in a long time, I definitely think the original entry is better as it truly captures the raw emotions I carried with me at that time.