The Art of Schadenfreude

I am on day three of my sickness, and it's getting worse. Not just the annoying cough and general "sickly" feeling, but also the complete and utter mockery that I am receiving at home from my so called "loved ones."

This leads me to delve into a look at the art of schadenfreude. What is this schadenfreude, you ask? Well, I admit that even though I have been familiar with the act for sometime, I only became familiar with the word a few months ago myself.

Here is the definition from dictionary.com:

scha⋅den⋅freu⋅de [shahd-n-froi-duh]/ˈʃɑdnˌfrɔɪdə/ Show Spelled Pronunciation

–noun
satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.

I am oh to familiar with schadenfreude. You see, I have married into a family with a long line of experts in the art of mockery. And I think that my wife may have the greatest powers of the clan. The mock is strong in that one.

Here I sit nearly on my death bed. I don't look for pity or sympathy or empathy even. I am perfectly content to suffer alone in silence. But you would think when I am in such obvious misery, I would get at least a little love. But no. I receive mockery in heaps.

Mock the way I cough. Mock the way I sound. Mock mock mock. I can only find comfort in the fact they everyone will feel extremely guilty after I succumb to the microscopic bugs that are sucking the life out of me. But, of course, I would not take any pleasure in their misery of guilt, because I just don't have any schadenfreude in me! I am a nice man.

So, I will continue to nurse myself back into health. If this is the last blog you ever read on this site, then you'll know I didn't make it. Bye for now.