Whiners, Not Winners

a loooooooong time ago, when i was a relatively new teacher, the powers that be came up with a really great way to deal with the teenage angst we encountered on a daily (hourly) (okay, minute by minute) basis. whenever we were faced with the inevitable, "but mrs. blooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooond, we have tooooooooooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch homewooooooooooooooooooooooooooork tonight. it's noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair!" or, "is this on the teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeest? but it's soooooooo muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch. we can't dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!" we were supposed to flash a sign to the class. this sign has been carefully fonted, printed, embellished, and laminated for maximum effect.

it said, "we are winners, not whiners."

do i sound like i'm kidding? do you really think that is even funny to say as a joke? sadly, i am totally serious. was this effective? yeah, like as effective as hilary clinton would be in pursuading me that it takes a village to raise my children...

so, why am i pondering whining and winning? i am wondering what blogs would be like if there was no whining. or if blogs had ratings, like 1-5 tissues worth of snotty tears shed over how pathetic your life and blog are. maybe the rating could be 1-5 valium- how much the reader needs in order to get through your post, or how much the author should be on in order to just get a grip. they could use figures from the headlines- like, "my blog is like terry schiavo- brain dead, starving and dying- read at your own risk..." or "my blog is a donald trump- careless and self centered with a bad comb-over."

the question is, what would people talk about if they weren't throwing a pity party? and how many less people would read them?

but the real question is, how much better would they feel about themselves?

this blog has been rated a mike tyson- ear biting and illiterate, with no thought as to the consequences...