Holding a grudge will shorten your life

In 1878, railroad millionaire Charles Crocker decided to buy up the lots surrounding his mansion on San Francisco’s Nob Hill to improve his view of the surrounding vistas. He reached agreements with all the neighbors except for German undertaker Nicholas Yung, who refused to sell.

“I would have been happier than a condor in the sky,” Crocker wrote, “except for that crazy undertaker.”

His solution was pure spite: He built a 40-foot fence around Yung’s cottage on three sides, spoiling his view in hopes that he would sell. The fence can be seen behind the central mansion in this photo; only the chimneys of Yung’s house project above it.

“How gloomy our house became, how sad,” Yung’s daughter later wrote. “All we could see out our windows was the blank wood of the rich man’s fury. … The flowers in the garden all died, and our lawn turned brown, while inside the house everything felt perpetually damp.”

Yung held out nonetheless — according to some reports he mounted a 10-foot coffin atop the wall facing Crocker’s house — and the two maintained a senseless deadlock for years. Yung died in 1880 and Crocker in 1888; only then, when the mansion was sold to a new owner, did Yung’s heirs relent and sell their lot.

I found this on http://www.futilitycloset.com/

It is sad how foolish people with grudges become.

It is ugly that grown up people behave like angry six year olds.

So, to take heed of the lessons of this tale, we have to choose our battles and don't get worked up on things that are not really that big anyway. The clouded mind has a tendency of blowing everything out of proportion. One thing will lead to another and the toxic cycle will go on, and on and on and on until one of the proponents die.

It really ain't that big of a deal!

Patience is the key.

(Please remind me this the next time I blow my head off unnecessarily)