Putting Up With

Sylvia and I sat at the pool yesterday after having a swim and then waiting for our card buddies to show up. Part of the discussion was about things we "put up with" and why we do.

For instance, we put up with slow service at a restaurant because the food is great. We put up with a friend who always shows up late because they're a hoot when they do arrive. We put up with an abusive mate because we love them. Etc., etc., etc.

But there sometimes comes a time when we have no interest in "putting up with" poor behaviour anymore. That is the point when the good isn't worth the bad. I often think that many celebrities behave so badly because they are surrounded by adorers who put up with their horrid behaviour long after they should have been shunted aside.

There are two celebrities in the news these days who are involved in a physically abusive relationship which has become known to the public. The man beat up his girlfriend and then it's rumored she married him. Good old Oprah said it all. If he hits you once, he'll hit you again. The poor young lady in this case apparently believes her beautiful young man has learned his lesson but this is not likely to happen.

People learn what they can get away with fairly early in life. I watched a young mother and her 4 year old daughter in the pool yesterday and the future of that little girl is already plain to see. She mouths off at her mother and refuses to do as her mother meekly asks. When I heard her grossly overweight mother trying to bribe her vastly overweight child with food, I wondered why we're all so often blind to what we're doing wrong in our lives.

My "putting up with" meter has changed over the years. At my age now I put up with very little and I'm amazed at how liberating that is. It's easier for me to walk away from crap than it was when I was younger and it's easier to speak up about things I think I can change. Maybe it's because I have less to lose now but I've tried to instill my newfound ethics in my grandchildren. My own children are at a time in their lives when they're redeveloping their own "putting up with" meters.

We put up with what we have to but there is a lot we don't have to put up with.