Some points to ponder (5/3/04)

Isn’t it interesting the effect some people have on us? There are those who set our teeth on edge whenever they walk into a room. They don’t even have to speak and we react by tensing our muscles and a frown automatically plasters itself on our faces. Our stomachs churn and we draw our shoulders in protectively at the very thought of having to deal with them. Those are the people who never have ulcers, they just pass them around to the rest of us.

There are ones who upset us without even being in the same room. I wonder why we give them so much power to ruin an otherwise good mood. I know all the self-help books say we can control how we react to idiots but the self-help books are wrong much of the time. If it were that simple then at least half of the antacid companies and a good percentage of companies that market drugs for anxiety and depression would be out of business. And, yes, I know that the prevailing thought today is that anxiety and depression are real disorders caused by chemical imbalances not by our reactions to others. I happen to agree with this theory. I also know that irritating people make just about everything worse.

Others make us feel happy just by the sound of their voices. No matter what kind of day I’ve had, whenever my brother, David, calls I immediately perk up. I find it impossible to have a conversation with him without doubling over in laughter. I have no idea when or how he got to be so funny. He was a rather ordinary kid when he was growing up. Maybe it was because he was orange when he was a newborn. He looked like a little pumpkin baby. He isn’t orange anymore; just funny. It must be some sort of weird aftereffect.

He tells me about ordinary things, like his new truck. It is the first time he has ever owned a vehicle that was built in the current decade. He is too young for a mid-life crisis and the accompanying sports car. So he bought a truck - a really BIG truck. It is so big that he has yet to let his wife take it to work. He is afraid it won’t fit in the parking garage. I think it is an excuse to keep the pickup for himself.

He carries a step stool in this vehicle. It is the only way our mother can climb into the passenger seat and experience the view from the mountain peak of his new symbol of machismo.

The way he described catching his son and the neighbor kid attempting to crawl through the back window of his latest toy was priceless. He left me picturing two little kids stuck halfway in and halfway out of a truck window while David dismantled the entire body of the truck to get them loose. Fortunately, he caught them before the situation got out of hand. My nephew is now confined to the house for an indefinite period as a result of this potential fiasco.

He also told me about the karate lessons that his son and my other brother’s son take once a week. It seems that they have now progressed to the “cool” stuff. David is trying to figure out how he can get away from work in time to take lessons himself. It would be his luck that the adult lessons are given by some sadistic behemoth who delights in using my brother as a demonstration dummy. Maybe its a good thing that David works the hours he does …

I have people in my life whom I call just because the sounds of their voices calms me down when I am feeling frazzled. I have people who call me for the same reason. I don’t understand how I could calm anyone down. They must be really desperate if they expect me to help. I am so grateful for the people in my life who make me laugh and not so grateful for the ones who make me seethe. It takes all kinds to make a world. How dull it would be if we were all alike. I’m glad I’m not related to any of the irritating ones.[[In-content Ad]]