Am I supposed to feel guilty for not putting money in the kettle of those irritating bell ringers?  I don't.  I feel nothing at all but annoyance that they are clanging those horrid stupid things at me as I march by.  If I thought giving them money might shut them up, I'd do it, but a long time ago I game one of them money and it only made them ring the damn things harder!!

I don't notice if the holier than thou ringer is glaring at me for a cheapskate, cuz I'm usually glaring at them, thinking  "Shut the HELL UP!! If I wanted unceasing NOISE, I'd have stayed home with the KIDS!"

If the city of Minneapolis could enact a ban on smoking in bars and resteraunts to protect the health of the people who work there, they should be able to do something about the potential for hearing damage posed by those who ring those rotten bells.  I gotta believe ringing those damn bells for four straight hours is harder on the ears than being in a smokey bar is on the lungs.  I suppose the ringers can use earplugs, and waitresses can't exactly hold their breath and I really don't think it's the city's place to protect me from the noise...in fact, I'd rather waitresses wore gas masks and we could smoke in bars if we wanted to, the point is

I DON'T FEEL GUILTY.

When little kids ask me to donate to their whatever, I have no problem smiling at them and saying "Nope!" Twenty four years of motherhood has made all forms of the word "no" come tripping off my tongue with a minimum of effort.  In fact, sometimes I mean to say "yes" and it comes out "NO!".  Twenty four years of Spring pageants, Christmas concerts, open houses, tee ball games, recitals, graduations and sports banquets have also made it easy for me to answer the question "Buy a ticket to (fill in the blank)?" with a sweetly stated "Not if you put a gun to my head."  If you're not my flesh and blood, I'm not going to your show.

As for the cashier who asks if I want to donate to the food shelf; kiss my ass.  You're Cub Foods.  You have a lot more food than I do.  YOU donate.  Go ahead and frown, like I give a shirt.  I don't go to the grocery store to make friends.  I don't even go to the park to make friends.  I spent most of my life hiding from the few friends I haven't managed to scare away.  Like I'm going to worry about a frown from total strangers who work at the grocery store??  I'm not friends with a much better class of people than you, sister!

I refuse to feel guilt over these silly little holiday annoyances not because I give so much already, blabbity blabbity blah.  Not at all.  I know lots of people who are far more generous with their time and money than I have been.  It's just that I have several things in my past for which I still cringe with guilt when I remember them, and several kids in my present who can be counted on to remind me of those cringe producing transgressions every so often.  When you have real guilt on your conscience, faux guilt has a hard time getting your attention.

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion