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 "In my life, I've known way too many angry people, so many people who hang on to the stuff like its important and beneficial. Too many people are carrying too many grudges and long-term memories of perceived injustices. For the most part, I've found that these people have few friends, even fewer long-term friends, and believe that everyone is to blame for the problem but them. You wonder why so many people are so bad with names. No room they're very busy being very angry. Big waste of time, brain resources, blood pressure medication. They're the sorts who wake up one day with regrets lots of them. I've seen later versions of them. The husband who left his wife for a newer version, who in turn left him for a more virile, realistic version. I have seen it. The thing about growing older is that you begin to see more than you want to. You observe things that make you believe people when they say, "ignorance is bliss". Six degrees of separation from unpleasant realities becomes two. I made a life decision to learn better how to pick my battles, to understand what is important enough to escalate, to gauge what will be important in a week, a month, a year. To know what I can tolerate, and what I cannot. To say things I won't regret when I must speak up against the intolerable. It's tough. It's easy to be thoughtless, and it's easy to vent untethered anger to whomever will listen. There's an old wives' saying that acid damages its container much more than whatever you throw it on. I believe in karma, that what you reap you will sow. I believe in it because I have seen this, too. I have seen the way it smacks you when you least expect it. It is a reminder to pay your debt, or to spend the credit when you most need to. No doubt that we've got plenty to be angry about these days. Heaps. I've read that anger shortens people's lives. I'd rather live through it, do something about it, and live knowing that the possibility is there.
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