The World's Common Tater

We sing a song at church with ‘Ain’t nothing gonna steal my joy” in the lyrics.

The Kentucky basketball coach has said before that he wasn’t going to let people steal his joy.

That phrase, mainly the song, has been in my head this morning because I have a bad habit of letting people steal my joy. And there are a lot of joy thieves out there?

How do people steal my joy?

Dismissing things that make me happy as useless and a waste of time.

I write a lot about TV. Sometimes someone feels the need to comment to tell me that watching TV is a waste of time.

I read a lot. People tell me they don’t have time to read, usually in a way that implies that I should be busier and reading is taking time away from more important things.

I used to go to Starbucks a lot when I worked at the library. It was my comfort food, but coffee. I did it because it was a mood lift that I needed. Someone at work would tell me how it was a waste of my money.

I usually just ignore it, but sometimes it gets to me more than it should. I shouldn’t care what people think about my hobbies and habits, but sometimes I do.

Why do people feel the need to belittle the hobbies of others? I don’t are how you spend your time. Does it make you happy? Just do it. Don’t let others steal that joy from you.

Sometimes it is in the form of dismissing an accomplishment or trying to one-up others on accomplishments.

Sometimes I look for little wins in life. It might not seem like a win to you, but for me, it is something to grasp onto to keep me from sliding further into a depression.

If you think it is stupid or meaningless or sad just keep that to yourself. You don’t know how your dismissive attitude might affect someone’s mood. I might go from feeling good about something to dwelling on what someone else said that dismissed it and there goes my joy.

I’m going to work on not letting that happen. I need to learn to ignore the joy-stealers. If something makes me happy or seems like a win to me that is all that should matter.

I need to live the phrase “Ain’t nothing gonna steal my joy”