But I’ve started to think that a little bit of orneriness—judiciously applied—is not a character flaw. It is a survival mechanism.
We hear the "bad-tempered" part and we run for the hills. Nobody wants to be the grump at the party. But I want to focus on the second half: Stubborn.
They annoy us. But they also anchor us.
So, here is to the ornery ones. The holdouts. The contrarians. The people who refuse to upgrade the software. The ones who drink their coffee black and hate the new office layout.
The Sacred Art of Orneriness: Why Stubbornness Might Save Your Soul But I’ve started to think that a little
It is the mechanic who refuses to let you drive away with a bad brake pad because “I don’t work that way.” It is the editor who scratches out your purple prose. It is the friend who refuses to validate your self-destruction.
The old farmer who is ornery about his tractor might yell at the sky. He won’t yell at the kid who wanders onto his land to fetch a ball. He’ll just grumble, hand the ball back, and mutter about “kids these days” under his breath. That’s the difference. Nobody wants to be the grump at the party
Let’s look at the dictionary: Ornery (adj.): Bad-tempered and combative; stubborn.