Anger Issues

I've come to believe anger is cumulative. Something happens to piss me off. Rather than dealing with it, I keep my mouth shut, stuff my anger somewhere it doesn't belong, and go on like nothing happened.

Sometimes expressing my anger is simply inappropriate. It's not OK to bite a coworker's head off for wasting my time in a faculty meeting talking about stuff nobody cares about. Keeping my mouth shut doesn't make the anger go away.

Sometimes expressing my anger is, at best, ineffective. Laying on the horn when someone cuts me off in traffic doesn't change a thing. Ditto flipping off the jerk who's front bumper is practically in my back seat. Given the number of people around here who carry guns, expressing my anger with these drivers could get me killed. So I don't.

In other cases there is no place to direct my anger. Politicians piss me off on a daily basis. I've taken my anger to the ballot box--none of my current representatives at the state and federal level received my vote. I won't vote for any of them next time around either. Calling them is a waste of time. Changing a position to win my vote would turn-off the people who will re-elect them next time around.

Sometimes expressing my anger is just a waste of time. Lots of people believe a bunch of bullshit that simply isn't true. Many have opinions on subjects about which they know absolutely nothing. They accept as gospel anything someone forwards them in an e-mail message, unless of course it's contrary to the crap they believe. Arguing with idiots is a fool's game.

Stuffing my anger kinda sorta works--at least for a while. I carry it around with me, keeping the lid on tight to avoid a blow up. You might see a little steam escape now and then, but mostly I keep it bottled up pretty tight.

The exceptions, unfortunately, are the people I love. For unknown reasons I seem to think it's OK to blow-up at the people who least deserve my anger. It's the thing I hate most about being...

The Crotchety Old Man