My Two-Cents: The Grinch... Misunderstood?
When I was a kid, I used to think the Grinch had it all wrong. Now that I am much more mature and wise (maybe not much, but a tad) I think the Grinch is misunderstood. Six-year-old me thought it was crazy that the guy just wanted to live alone in his mansion with his dog, perched above the (obnoxiously) peppy Houville. Twenty-one-year-old me thinks the Grinch might have been on to something. Plus those Whos were definitely smoking something. (Proceed with caution of my facetious tone.)
Saturday night, I found myself debating whether or not to go out, much like the Grinch does in that one scene: Ooo. Ahh. That’s it I’m not going. I also found myself resembling his other bit: 4 o’clock, wallowing in self-pity. 4:30, stare into the abyss. 5 o’clock, solve world hunger, tell no one. 5:30, jazzercise! 6:30, dinner with me – I can’t cancel that again. 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling, and slip slowly into madness. And you're telling me this guy is the bad guy? Granted, he did have his faults – he did try to steal Christmas. But we all make mistakes! Maybe there is much to learn from Mr. Grinch, or shall I say Mr. Misunderstood.
The Grinch has his faults. For one, his style is behind the times. For another, he hates society probably a little bit too much. No one likes an extremist dude. But I think the Grinch had one thing figured out to a tee; he mastered his awareness of the Spotlight effect. Psychology coins this as the overestimation of people actually paying attention to you. And this exists because most people are only thinking about themselves. This is not great news in many ways. But it is if you are ever thinking that people are thinking or paying attention to you, because they're not. The Grinch knew this best, which is why he didn’t care. Or maybe he cared too much, which is why he left society for his hilltop estate. I’m not advocating or advising anyone to go to that extreme, but I think we would all benefit from taking a more balanced approach to the Grinch’s not-caring and blase attitude towards others' opinions. The Grinch found what he liked, his dog and jazzercise, and then became pretty disinterested in the opinions of others. Being disinterested in others opinions doesn’t mean you have to be a dick. In my experience, being a dick is probably a symbol of being overly concerned with people's opinions. Myself included; the times I’ve been a dick were probably because I was so worried about what other people were thinking about me, unfortunately. Being disinterested in others' perceptions means you can be kind and helpful. Or in this case, it means you can be a Grinch, live happily, and return Christmas.
