"The Idiot Meter"

"Kindness costs nothing." The saying fits nicely on a decorative tile. But is that really true? Well, if you ask me.. Then it most certainly does cost something. No, not as in money or anything. But it does cost patience and the ability to keep seeing the positive. And that takes buckets of energy and inner work.

Especially in these challenging times, we're exposed daily to absurd and ridiculous behavior. My dear dad, who by now is old and withered, always used to say, "San, don't get annoyed, just be amazed." Yes, this saying also fits on a tile. It helped me for a long time, but it no longer suffices. I find myself amazed far too much and far too often, to the point of stupefaction.

But what then? A good round of cursing is sometimes wonderful, I'll admit it right away. But it isn't very constructive. And not exactly classy. Often I don't really feel better afterwards either. In fact, I then feel embarrassed about my own arsenal of swear words. So it had to be done differently. And that's with "the Idiot Meter." This helps me surprisingly well. And in the spirit of "sharing is caring," I don't want to keep it from you.

"The Idiot Meter," by the way, isn't scientifically grounded or anything, not empirically proven. But it is very usable. In all sorts of circumstances. It's a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 stands for wonderful, the world becomes a little more beautiful because of this behavior. The 10 stands for completely deranged, off the wall, I'd most like to package you up in a box of Tic Tacs behavior (and I'm not talking about the family size). The beauty of it? "The Idiot Meter" is entirely personal to set up, it's yours. Of course, if there's interest, you can explain who or what scores high on the meter, but you decide. Pretty cool, right?

I apply "the Idiot Meter" frequently in traffic, for example. The eights and nines were spotted plenty again today. You score those with me by, among other things, enthusiastically tailgating in a traffic jam ("No, you can't get through me, I'm stuck too, along with toute la Hollande, you fool!" A solid 9). Or doing 90 in the left lane of a four lane motorway ("Meine güte, get over to the right and a bit quick please!" A big 8). Or dumping your junk out of your car while driving ("where's Extinction Rebellion when you need them?" A 10). Or in a traffic jam, tearing past the whole crowd via the petrol station after all ("100 meters ahead, you pathetic wretch!" A 7). It's striking, by the way, that "caps" often score high.

So with "the Idiot Meter" I make something amusing out of all the nonsense I come across but can't do anything about. Maybe you can use it too, give it a try, I'd say. For me, at least, it makes a difference in irritation, stress level, and blood pressure. Often I can even have a laugh about it. And that way it even becomes win win. Because, "A day without laughter is a day not lived." And yes, this saying fits on a tile too.