What makes people angry? Lately I've encountered more than my monthly quota of angry people, and have had to endure their rants and raves about everyone in their life that has caused them grief. I listen to stories of liars, cheats, idiots, and thieves as the tellers recount their woes, blaming the world for all of the ills that have effected them. I attempt to offer counsel, but it's evident that the grieved do not want it. Instead they're happy to wallow in their own mud hole, as if it gives them a raison d'être; their life is defined by their own anger, they don't seek nor even desire peace.
Happiness, it seems, comes in many forms. Maybe to some, attention seeking through anger is their form of true happiness, giving them the peace of being surrounded by consoling and attentive "friends". They reach out with their anger like a fisherman casts a line hoping that someone will pay attention and offer the attention that they are looking for. I can't do it. I can't find the compassion within me yet to allow myself to strike at the line and be netted into their world of drama. Instead I ignore, telling myself that this is truly what they need, my inattention is therapeutic for them. That, it appears, is the lie that I tell myself.
2 comments:
I don't know if it's a lie. It takes wisdom to know when you can help someone or when they do love their own anger. If they're the kind of person you're talking about, maybe reaching out is detrimental. It could go either way. But you're dead on that some people need anger and sadness, I think.
Some people thrive on conflicts... it's their nature. Nothing we can do about it. :)
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