ANGRY

I have made the recent discovery that I am an angry person, living in an angry society.

            I know, you are probably shocked and still in denial, but the real fact is that everybody hates everybody else.

            We live in this circular (not secular) society, where we fight anger with more anger. If someone posts a negative diatribe against one group, said group spews back angry words in return.

            We strike out in anger at the things that we can't control, or the minds that we can't change. In return, the exchange of angry words online is not really an exchange. We read the first paragraph and think that the person is a loon, bigot, Liberal, Conservative, Black, White, Mexican, vegan, meat-eater, stoner, or alcoholic.

            Does it matter? We hate them anyway.

            I have tried capitals, lowercase, humor, anger, and resignation to try and defeat those morons. The problem is that I think they are morons, and they know I think they are morons, so they return fire with abrasive comments and thumbs down.

            I guess I can't change the world to cater to myself, DAMMIT!

            And it isn't just posting, it's how people drive. It's what they drive. It's actually who's driving.

            I look at cars with certain license plates and I know who's driving! Even if I don't know who's driving. They are from that state, or that county, or that city, and I know who they are.

            Fort Collins, Colorado bars recently made a move to ban all people with Greeley, Colorado drivers licenses from their bars. They cause feuds, battles, gang fighting. They bring guns, knives, and toothbrushes (okay, maybe not the toothbrushes, but they are a gateway weapon). But that's how Fort Collins, Colorado people see people from Greeley, Colorado.

            So apparently, it's not just me.

            We have become a society of pointing fingers and accusations. Everything is always someone else's fault.

            I guess my question is: If we can love one group of people and accept them for who they are, why can't we do this will all groups? Why can't we respond with "I love you and forgive you" or "everything will work out for the best" or finally "hate begets hate, become the one who stops the circle".

            Because hasn't the buck always "stopped here"? Shouldn't I be able to control my own knee-jerk reactions to someone else? Why do I give them the power to make me hate them?

            Recently, I started waving at angry drivers. I mouth the words "have a nice day" to them as the speed past me. I have been flipped off, screamed at, honked at, and cut off, because how rude of me to tell people to have a nice day... right?

            I got to thinking about this, and I wondered if they thought I was being insincere? I wondered if I was being insincere?

            And it comes back to this angry society that we live in. They thought I was being insincere, because in another place and time, I probably was insincere.

            So not only do we need to change the pattern, we need to weave a new pattern. We need to accept the face value deliveries at full value in the hopes that someday they will be full value.

            We need to accept the slow drivers as careful and the fast drivers as in a hurry. We need to accept the Christians and the atheists, because that is who they are. If you want to believe, then believe. If you don't want to believe, don't.

            We need to accept the people who are LGBT, and give them their rights because they are human. We need to accept the people who don't like the LGBT because they have the right to believe what they want to believe.

            We need to accept the presidents over the years, even if we disagree with them. The majority of the people in this country voted for those men, and there is a reason that this is a democracy. They are our presidents, even if they are not your presidents.

            We need to get over our anger and forgive, even if it tastes like dirt when we do it. We need to love that one person (or hundred persons) that hates us. And we need to forgive, instead of dwelling on the trespasses against us.

            This is the world that we live in. It is getting smaller and smaller. The population has exploded.

            Now we have to move on...