Who On Earth….

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The news.  It is out there.  And I read it.  Every day.

Political News. World News, National News, Social News… you name it. And every genre of news, has a gazillion outlets.

Heck, turn on the TV to an “Entertainment News” show and they will surely tell you.  Beyonce is done with Jay Z.  Kelly is mad at Michael.  Camilla hates Kate.  The masses are up in arms with the other masses. It seems.

Oh.  But don’t stop there.  Yesterday, the big breaker in the headlines was the lawsuit against Starbucks.  Apparently, they put too much ice in their iced coffee… and a Chicago woman feels violated.  So she is seeking vindication.  A law suit about the abundance of ice.

My guess is, she is the same one who filed suit against McDonald’s about the hot coffee.

People.  Here is some news for you.  Coffee is hot.  Iced Coffee has ice in it. (Added bonus… it is NOT hot.)

Yes, once again, it appears that the masses are feuding.

Don’t even get me started on the Political News.

I mean… Ringling Brothers have quit using elephants in their shows.  Apparently, they feel there are enough elephants in the three-ring-circus on the political level with the Republican Party.

Oh, the Democrats are not much better.  In fact, the donkeys of the Grand Canyon… have officially gone on strike.

The shame of it all.

All kidding aside, that really is all a shame.  Yesterday, I saw a little 10-second-video-gif on Imgur.  A road rage thing.  A guy flings open his truck door, gets out and walks angrily toward the car in front of him.  He begins to yell into the open window…. when out pops a bull-mastiff head…. attached to a huge bull-mastiff … barking like crazy.  The guy slinks back to his truck and gets in.

But the point is… he shot out of his vehicle with such vehemence toward this stranger in the car in front of him.  Over what?  Did they turn out in front of him?  Did they forget to use their turn signal?  Or maybe they were just driving a bit too slow.  And boy, oh boy… did it EVER piss him off.

So. WE are back to it.  Camilla hates Kate.  Next, we have…. too much ice.   And last year in the U.S…. there were more than 33,000 gun deaths   (  [http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/03/us/gun-deaths-united-states/   )]

I had a few moments today, where I got upset with certain situations.  I don’t like getting angry, but I can get angry at time.

All of us get angry.  It is a natural human emotion.  But dag nab it.  We have a LOT of anger in the world these days.  I’ve read some articles on this topic.  A lot of them agree that we get angry for one of four different reasons.  Mostly.
(From Psychology Today:)
1.    To harm oneself. Being depressed often results in anger directed at oneself for feeling and being powerless, and represents a wish for self-destruction.
2.    To achieve control. Whether arising from paralyzing fear or merely irritation that things are going differently than we want, anger is often used to intimidate in order to manipulate.
3.    To feel powerful. If we feel small, getting others to feel smaller makes us feel in comparison big.
4.    To fight injustice. Righteous indignation coming from a person’s moral center, outrage at an inequity being committed against oneself or others.

So. What do we do with it.  Well, there are even MORE article on this.  But the bottom line for me, depending on what the anger is stemming from, is not to suppress it, but to recognize it.  And then fix it.

And fixing it may come in many different ways.  With the exception of fighting an injustice…   a big thing of dealing with anger is recognizing just how “little” it really is.   Most of the time… it isn’t a life or death matter… or the end of the world.  Much of the time, we won’t even remember this  “incident” in a week.

All I can say.. is breathe.  Give the other person a break.  Think.  And understand.

And remember, the coffee is hot.  Or iced.  And Camilla didn’t like Diana either …