Last night W went on a rant, but I really tried to listen carefully. It jumped back and forth between being personal, and not, I think she was using the personal to illustrate the general, and it wasnt' meant to be taken personally.
Anyway, she started her new career as an ICU nurse last fall. So, in the past 5 or six months she has gotten a pretty high level of exposure to the most unhealthy amongst us. What she has seen has convinced her that as a country, ad probably a world, we will probably see life expectancies go down in the near future. Because she is seeing a lot of younger people dying from diseases that we associate with older folks, with obesity being a huge factor. And she sees that there are a lot more obese kids around now then there were when we were young. So, all of that is pretty logical, but she brings in my health, and my parents' to try to solidify her argument. The thing is, while I should lose a bit of weight, I am not in the boat she is referring to. Usually I would have gotten defensive, but I think I managed to realize that while she was talking about me, I don't think she was talking about ME. So maybe I did a bit better. She continued into a bit of a rant about the environment, as well, and pointed out that I haven't fixed the clothesline that we had been using to dry towels and sheets on, tha has been broken for a couple months. I tried not to get defensive there, either, I said I should have, and that I would try to do it this weekend.
But, what this whole discussion made me see is that she is clearly a glass half empty person, and I am much more a glass half full person. I think that remembering this might help me get through some of her "lectures" better. I just need to figure out the right tools!
