The Man Who Complained Once a Year

I once heard a story of a man who allowed himself one complaint a year. My friend stayed with this man on his farm in the deep north of California. If you’re not from California, it’s unlikely that you’ll spent any time in the northern most third of the state, so let me tell you a little bit about it. It’s weird.

As my friend stayed with this man, and heard about his one complaint a year, the next question he asked was a given: what was your complaint this year?

The man told a story of the fence on his property breaking during a vicious and powerful storm. To keep his cows from getting out onto the road, he had to fix this fence in the rain. As he was out there sloshing around in the mud, getting soaked to the socks, he let forth his complaint: “Darn it.“

I’m not sure why, but I was always inspired by the story. Gratitude and thankfulness and complaining–these are all frames by which we can see our experiences. To many of us, it may seem unjust that a powerful storm would knock down a fence, and we would have to fix it in the rain. We would probably have more choice words than “darn it” in that situation. 

But after a year of not complaining, this man had trained his mind for gratitude. When faced with an unpleasant situation, completely out of his control, the most he could muster was “darn it.”