Thank you cards for Jerks.

I have a cousin who manages a card store. I think I'll wander down and see her. Cause if anybody can point me to a card that thanks people for being jerks, it's her.

I feel it's important to thank people who help you out. People who teach you and help form your path. Its a new concept for me to want to thank difficult people. I used to pour vitriol upon them. Sometimes in person, mostly inside my head. Then one day I read a quote that stated "hating people is like drinking poison and expecting others to become ill."

Ain't that the truth, Internet?

So I started thinking. I do that sometimes. Sometimes when I ought to be sleeping.

What do we learn from easy times and compatible people? Other than how to enjoy joy, not much.

It is the difficult times and the hard angled people that teach us. I'm not saying that people should be jerks, I think that people should endeavour to minimise their jerkiness. What I'm saying (and I've said it before) is that with any horrible terrible no good very bad thing; or person, you can learn something valuable if you choose.

SO, you ask. What have I learned from jerks? Well, Internet, let me tell you.

I have learned that sometimes fate puts people in your way to show you how NOT to be.

I have learned that being treated like dirt won't kill me. I don't like it. But it won't kill me. I will survive.

I have learned what it looks like when someone STARTS treating me like dirt. It usually starts slow, yes? Rarely do jerks come out the gate full force, in my experience.

I have learned my limits. I have a long fuse. Maybe too long. But I have learned not to let the fuse run out, cause the explosion is some kinda fugly.

I have learned to stand up. To go up to a jerk like individual and say "you see this thing that you're doing? It ain't gonna fly. You're done"

I have learned how to mean that.

I have learned that sometimes it's just best to walk away. 

I have learned that when you are free of a jerk, hind sight is always 20/20 and not to take it too seriously.

I have learned that despite what the jerks would have me believe the jerkiness wasn't about me. It was about whatever nasty movie reel is playing in the jerk's head. I was merely the screen for the movie. Jerkiness is rarely personal.

I learned the above because...wait for it...I have learned I have a certain amount of value in this world.

I guess I could have learned the value thing from the good times and lovely people. But I'm stubborn, see? I don't learn very well it seems, when the lesson is easy.

Nope, I gotta do it the hard way. Blame my Irish / Scottish ancestry. Blame the Red tint in my hair. Who knows?

I'm hoping that the Jerk Cards, when I find them have flowers and kitties and stuff on em. That's just funny to me.