Visiting with my Grandmother last night and we were remembering her mother. She was not the soft, matronly grandmother type you might imagine. She was quiet, reserved with a sense of humour just under the surface. I got to spend a lot of time with her growing up, so we spent some time talking about what she was like.
We came to one conclusion. You would never hear her complain. She grew up in Gunnison, CO and was the 4th daughter of a large ranch family. She learned how to work on the farm starting at a young age, and if you could compare her at 9 with the 9 year old kids today that would be a revelation! She was a tom boy, not out of desire, but out of shear survival. Her mom was a business woman who ran the ranch, and did not have time for any of the normal kid stuff you might imagine.
No she never complained, and as my Grandmother and I discussed it further we realized something else. We all learned that complaints in her family never got any footing. You might as well be complaining at a dead horse for all the good it would do. Yes, complaining was just completely ignored. Her mom would not even flinch. You could yell, scream, jump up and down, cry, belly ache and all of the above. Nothing. Not even a raised eyebrow.
She has plenty to complain about herself. Losing all of her children to trajedy except for one. She lost them to disease, drowning, and food poisoning. No complaints. Just woke up the next day and carried on. You would think someone that went through that much hardship would have a litany of complaints about how unfair life was. Even compared to rural colorado standards her life was hard, yet she never voiced one word of negativity. My Grandmother and I could not remember once instance.
So in my family, you might as well forget about complaining. If the matriarch of the family can bury 5 children, then you can shut up and deal with your little inconvienience.
