Rant 1 - Seaweed 0

Rant:  A wild, emotional, and sometimes incoherent articulation.

Because I hate to ruin the narrative of my life - that of a really, really great guy who is kind and loving to everyone and seemingly without any serious flaws - I try not to dip into Rant Mode too often.  It's so . . . anti-Seaweed.

Yeah, well.

During my recent Midwest walkabout I saw some truly great friends, I revisited some old haunts - scenes of some of my greatest victories and most spectacular defeats - and spent some time doing some things and seeing some people, things that I felt a need to do for a variety of reasons even though I knew some of them were going to be less than pleasant for me and it is - as you know - all about me.

So my brother-in-law Not Rex . . . 

I really can't stand the guy.  Over the years I have progressed from sort of liking him; to not really liking him and arguing with him incessantly; to ignoring him 95% of the time until I couldn't stand listening to him talk for one minute more, resulting in a somewhat heated argument that left me feeling worse than if I had kept my mouth completely and fully shut; to my present state: just not paying any attention to him.  During my trip I tried to edge away from him as often as possible.  I did not do things that would put me in close proximity to his moving mouth, such as breakfast time and lunch time and hike-up-the-mountain time.

I realize the searing quality of the irony - that I'm too much like him for my own comfort.  If you want to see how annoying your shortcomings are hang around someone who has a lot of the same defects.

The other issue, in my opinion, is that Not Rex is sort of a professional student type.  After college he went to work for a big manufacturing company who paid for him to get a master's degree in accounting.  He left a few years later to go to law school where he did very well.  After graduation he went to work for a big law firm and progressed there, well on his way to making partner which is when, as I understand it, lawyers quit working 80 hours a week and begin to make serious money.  He left a few years later to take a corporate law position at another different, big manufacturing company.  He did very well there and was very unhappy.  He came home about a year ago and told my sister that he had quit his job.  He had no other job lined up.  He isn't working now and doesn't appear to be looking for employment with any intensity.  I think that the fact that I was more successful in the business world has always grated on his nerves, and he's too tentative and not nearly as aggressive as one needs to be to achieve a lot of success in the business world. 

I try to be compassionate and understanding, to go the extra mile to be the bigger person.  I have this amazing Program, after all.  I have this amazing Program behind me and I'm still an asshole most of the time.  I have no idea how people adrift in the world, no spiritual, bigger-than-me foundation to stand on, make it through the day.

That being said - I don't take more shit from anyone than I think is fair.  You can give me some shit, just not an unlimited amount of shit.  

I'm going to go stand over there.