So Many ANGRY People — Who Promised You Life Would Be EASY?

Whereas this might sound a bit "woo-woo" to some among you, one of the things I often do when I am out and about, running errands, going to the supermarket and such... is get a sense for the "vibe" of the world.

Sadly, so much of the time what I seem to pick up on is how angry so many people are.

It seems to cross generations; I even notice how our own kids are so often angry about something, and typically looking around for someone to blame for what is wrong. Much of the time, that anger — whether from young or old — seems to come from the same general source: "Something in life isn't turning out the way I wanted it to turn out!"

If you stop and think for a moment, that last bit of the sentence can mean an awful lot of different things.

Remember when we were kids, we would so often use the expression "but it's not FAIR!?"

When I think back to my own childhood and youth, the main difference I sense is that I was never taught that life would somehow always turn out the way I wanted and expected. In fact, I was cautions not to "expect" anything, and to be prepared to get pretty much anything other than what I set out to get. As for "fair," I was often told that life isn't fair, and not to expect it to be fair.

Maybe my parents were a bit fatalistic; or maybe it was just a case of them having grown up in the shadow of World War II where unpredictable was pretty much what you expected; and things turning out the way you had hoped and planned was a treat, not an expectation.

I am not sure who or what taught the world that things were supposed to be easy pickings... maybe it's simply a bi-product of popular influences like the belief that you can "have it all" smashing directly into the reality that you very rarely get to have it all... and so people are angered by the cognitive dissonance between thought and actual outcome.

This afternoon, I drifted quietly through the supermarket, getting the few things I needed... and noticed the general irritability between couples; between parents and children; between grocery checkers and customers... whether it had to do with behaviors or someone being angry because "the one" they thought was on sale actually was not on sale.

Here in the US, the arrival of Covid-19 in early 2020 taught the entire culture about something they had most likely never experienced before: Products at a store being sold out and shelves being empty. But shouting at the store clerk won't magically make toilet paper or hand sanitizer appear! And yet? People do it all the time!

Some might argue that "you have to let out your frustrations," but wouldn't it make more sense to try to have a little perspective and evaluate reality, rather than getting angry because you feel entitled to everything in your life being "easy and available?"

Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!

How about YOU? Does it strike you that a lot of people are angry and unhappy? Does life seem difficult or unfair? Were we ever promised an "easy" life, in the first place? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20210701 00:19 PDT
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