Be A Grouch

In honor of National Grouch Day, I hereby toss aside all rainbows and unicorns in favor of embracing our human need to also be a grouch sometimes. While the Stoics support the four virtues of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice, and would typically eschew behavior fitting of a grouch, I believe expressions of grouchiness fit in perfectly.

Read On…

Oscar The Grouch

One of the most loved characters on Sesame Street, he is actually one of the most loving, too. Why? He represents how we all feel sometimes and shows exactly how to do it without hurting others. How? He tells everyone up front that he’s a grouch and will therefore have nothing nice to say – there are no surprises and no hurt feelings because it isn’t personal. That’s both lovable and loving. Imagine if we all prefaced our Be A Grouch moments to others that way?

“I’m in a grouchy mood so everything I’m about to say reflects that. It’s not you, it’s me.”

OK. Cool!

Vent. Express. Be human. Let it out. (You’ll only need about 90 seconds.)

Oscar also knows what he loves and unabashedly lets everyone know.

He also loves his pet worm, Slimey, and his girlfriend, Grundgetta. He loves as hard as he grouches.

I have so much respect for those that know how they feel and can express it.

The Four Virtues

Here’s how being a grouch Oscar style fits into the virtues:

Wisdom – control the controllables and accept the uncontrollables. Choosing to embrace and express grouchiness is controlling a controllable and releasing it in a healthy way. That’s wise.

Temperance – the “golden middle” between excess and deficiency. If feelings are left unexpressed, one would naturally drift towards one extreme or the other. Expression of all feelings leads to temperance.

Courage – Courage to do what is right, to speak your mind, to insist on truth. All feelings are true and right and should be expressed. It takes courage to stand up and share grouchiness in the right way, the Oscar Way.

Justice – Thought and action resulting in the common good. Saying out loud what we all feel sometimes liberates us and shows us that it is OK to have grouchy feelings. Oscar is contributing to the common good.

Maybe Oscar The Grouch is a Trash Can Stoic. He shows us that life in all its many forms is perfectly OK and beautiful.

Be A Grouch

Today’s mission is to embrace your inner grouch and let it out. Allow grouchiness to surface and then practice expressing it like Oscar. Here’s a recent example from me:

A few days after getting my mermaid hair, it was driving me absolutely insane. It turns out I’m allergic to it and we ended up taking it out, but we didn’t know that yet. In any case, I was GROUCHY!! I let everyone in my family know that I was super grouchy and that anything mean I said wasn’t a reflection on them, I was simply having a time of it by myself. Please give me wide berth today. RAWR RAWR RAWR. That was super helpful for avoiding upset feelings and for giving myself permission to feel yucky.

Go Forth And Be A Grouch!

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