| November 3, 2003 - Energy vampires |
| Dear Friends, have you ever been around an energy vampire? "What," you may ask "is an energy vampire?" Well I'll tell you. An energy vampire is someone who's so negative that you come away feeling drained of all energy when you've had to deal with them. A typical conversation might run as follows: E.V.: Hello, how are you? Me: It's my birthday! I'm 29 and some months old. E.V.: Congratulations, you're one step closer to death. Me: Well, umm, I hadn't really thought of that way. E.V.: Well you should. And believe me, with the life I've had, death can't come quick enough. But then you've always led a charmed life; not like me with all my troubles. Me: Well, how are things going for you now? E.V.: I'm tired. I'm always tired. You always seem so full of vim and vigor. What's your secret? Maybe you can give me some advice on how not to be so tired. Me: Well, you might try exercising. E.V.: Stop criticizing me! I can't believe you! Why don't you just go ahead and tell me how I've never made a right decision in my entire life! Me: I wasn't even thinking of anything like that. You asked me for advice. E.V.: Well what I really meant was for you to give me a backrub and offer to kiss my ass. Me: Oh, errrr, I see, ummmm, gotta go. Bye bye now. Energy vampires are people who have such a low opinion of themselves that they look to others to give them a sense of self-worth. They're like a big queen bee whose sole purpose is to generate needs. The queen bee has a few workers, who at first are willing to try to meet her needs. But as time goes by she pushes them as a way to test them. Since she sees herself as being unloveable, she believes her worker bees are only doing things for her out of a sense of duty and not affection. So her needs increase to the point where the worker bees are stumbling around unable to finish any of them in a way that will suit her. Then she gets herself all bent out of shape and says to herself, "See how selfish they are! My worker bees don't really care for me at all! They've just been deceiving me. If they truly cared about me, they'd have brought me that royal jelly five minutes ago." Ultimately, whereas the worker bees used to do their duties out of a genuine liking for their queen, they eventually begin to resent her because they feel they've let her down (as she constantly reminds them). And so it goes in a vicious cycle. The worker bees then are confronted with two choices. They can keep going until she passes away, at which point they then wonder what in the hell they've spent their lives doing. Or they can fly away. Whether they stay or go, the result is the same for the queen bee. She's going to be miserable no matter what. So at least the worker bees should make an effort to be happy and get away while they can. Go to page 2 of Energy Vampires Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |