Snowbird of Paradise<p><strong>Grumbling. The Last Refuge of the Powerless</strong></p><p>You all know the people I’m talking about. They are your family, neighbours, and friends. They are bloggers and YouTubers and TikTokers. They are anyone and everyone who feels disenfranchised.</p> Complaining. Image via baird-group.com <p>The older I get, the harder it gets to stay positive. I try really hard to be around uplifting people and to attend inspiring events, but no matter how hard I try I seem to come up against one or more negative people.</p><p>I could be walking in a beautiful forest and another hiker will be grumbling about politics. I could be driving through town and someone in the car will be complaining about the ugliness of a building under construction. I could be enjoying lunch in a local restaurant and another diner will find a fault in their meal that they just have to talk about.</p> Stop Complaining. Image via Alan Turkus at Flickr. <p>One of my sisters lives in an assisted-living facility that has everything a person could ask for. A beautiful location, charming staff, friendly residents, lots of different community activities to participate in, and yet the residents often complain. They complain about the food, about noise, about individual staff members, and about many other personal grievances. When I wondered about this and asked my sister to avoid those people, she told me that would be hard to do because it is a characteristic of too many residents. It’s what they do.</p><p>This all has me wondering if it is age-related or if something else is going on here. Maybe it has to do with being assigned to powerless roles and circumstances that deny older people the opportunity to use their life’s skills. Older people were all once positively contributing to society. They were accomplished professionals, talented artists, respected leaders, valued team members, beloved neighbours, honoured scientists, or appreciated community members of some kind, but now no-one knows any of that. They are reduced to their role as seniors without influence.</p> Complaining. Image via Kevin Spencer at Flickr. <p>We are all living longer, and we can all expect to be retired for more years than any previous generation. That means we have to make different financial plans than our parents did, and it also means that we have to rethink our roles in the world. We have to stop thinking of ourselves as teachers, or lawyers, or plumbers, or whatever it was we were in our working lives. We have to start reimagining our roles.</p><p>All those skills are not lost, but they could be repurposed and they should be. There are lots of retired people who have a lot to contribute as thinkers, planners, volunteers, and creatives in society. These are not powerless people. They are power-deprived. If more organizations could find ways to utilize all those skills, we might all hear less grumbling.</p><p></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/complaints/" target="_blank">#complaints</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/disenfranchised/" target="_blank">#disenfranchised</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/family/" target="_blank">#family</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/friends/" target="_blank">#Friends</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/grumbling/" target="_blank">#grumbling</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/life-skills/" target="_blank">#lifeSkills</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/power/" target="_blank">#power</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/power-deprived/" target="_blank">#powerDeprived</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/powerless/" target="_blank">#powerless</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/relationships/" target="_blank">#Relationships</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/retirement/" target="_blank">#retirement</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/seniors/" target="_blank">#seniors</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://snowbirdofparadise.com/tag/society/" target="_blank">#Society</a></p>