Schadenfreude

For those of you not familiar with one of my favourite words or phrases, right up there with go fuck yourself, schadenfreude means the following:

 "pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune"

It could be the ridiculous and slapstick, like watching someone getting hit in the head by bouncing a baseball off of a wooden board at a carnival game and hitting themselves in the head...not once but twice. Yes, you guessed it...that happened to me. And Dom had quite the laugh at my own expense and it has made it into my repertoire of self deprecating stories.

It could be more personally gratifying, likened to the Karma is a bitch school of thought when your ex ends up with a dick head douche bag and suddenly you don't seem so bad anymore. In case you're wondering...not a personal experience for me. I'm quite content to let bygones be bygones and move on with my life...I wish her and all nothing but happiness and peace.

I will admit that I have gotten a certain amount of pleasure watching certain people in my profession meet their comeuppance for being dicks in their own right. I work in a business for people by people and I do believe in treating people as I wish to be treated, so when I see others treat people like dirt or serfs....I have a special place in my own personal hell for them. Fuck them.

This post might seem a tad weird coming on the heels of my last post of love and all that jazz, further proving to you that my mind truly goes off in many directions and that I can tend to ramble on in semi coherence. But I'm thinking maybe that's the point for me...I'm saying exactly what I think. Fucking the filters and making sure I am not living my life with fear as the ruler. I have a perspective that I view the world through and since this is my blog I get to say what I want, when I want and for how long I want. Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it only makes sense to me and sometimes it makes sense to others...but it is always me.

So if I take a little pleasure from someone else's pain I don't take offence to someone doing the same because of my pain. In the end, it really doesn't matter to me. Hell...I put my pain out there on full view. Case in point To all the girls I loved before If it makes you smile or laugh at me, fill your boots my friends, there is more where that came from.

The idea that there is a single word to encompass the Karmic principle as well as taking some guilty pleasure in watching someone fall down a flight of stairs could only be put in place by the Germans...they're so damn efficient that way. And while their language can sound like bull frogs mating while being run over by a horde of warthogs in heat it is still a pleasurable thing to hear and understand when used correctly. Perhaps later we can explore other languages and their words used for grand designs.

For now, explore the possibilities that schadenfreude can bring you. Taken in proper doses and with an understanding that there is more to life than laughing at other peoples pain. I think maybe it helps us to understand another concept we should all be aware of. The "there but for the grace of God go I" principle seems a worthy counterpoint to schadenfreude. Who knows?

The day is ending and so I must sign off.

Ciao

D