Reason #329: I Threw a Pity Party and No One Came

Posted at June 17, 2010

It might not be “fair,” but no one wants to come to your “pity party.” A “woe is me” attitude and the facial expressions that go along with it are sure ways to get rejected by just about everyone, sometimes even those closest to you. I know, the experience has been a regular occurrence for me. I have been through some knocks over the last few years (of my own making by the way) and my reactions to those haven’t always been entirely positive. So I find myself in the unenviable position of being quite isolated in this world (or at least sometimes it “feels” that way). I have tried the pity party route, I guess to gain some attention, at least some compassion, but it just doesn’t work…only increases isolation and despair. I really believe it is better to just shrug it all off and go on living your life with a positive spirit, even when all the rest are rolling their eyes at your attempt at happiness. Sooner or later they will come around…won’t they? And if they don’t, well find a new circle to revolve in, or maybe that circle will find and embrace you. But the fact is that pity partiers are life’s ultimate “wall flowers.” They simply keep getting rejected. It is a hard fact of life, but true. It may not be fair, but who said it was going to be. It may hurt, but without the pain there is no gain. I could keep going with this “cliche-string,” but hopefully you’ve already caught the point. In reality pity is nothing but self-loathing and self-centering and, actually, selfishness. Who wants to be around someone like that? So my advice, to myself as well as anyone else reading this while feeling sorry for themselves, is cancel the pity-party…no one’s going to come anyway. Throw a birthday party instead, one that marks a new beginning of living for and thinking about bigger things than yourself.