Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Anger




Take what you like and leave the rest.



Like most folks, I experience, from time to time, all the prerequisite human emotions.  The way I learned them was: Sad, Mad, Glad, Fear.   Like most other humans, I laugh, cry, cringe and get mad.  But lately I have begun to suspect that I have an unusual relationship with anger.

Most folks get angry and blow up,  or else they simmer and wait for the right time.  Now, I do that.  I do both.  I blow up and I simmer, depending on the incident.  But sometimes, when I feel mad, I have other reactions.

Certain situations bring out something strange.

Trying to give the dog a bath, for instance.  She hates getting wet, so she does whatever she can to get out of it.  She hides, she tries to get under the bed, she runs away.  I keep going after her, getting madder and madder.  After a while she tries passive resistance, simply putting all four paws down firmly on the floor and refusing to move as I try to pull her towards the bathroom.  It makes me very mad, but the whole situation also strikes me as ridiculous.   So I start laughing.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I'm mad enough to chew nails.  I'm furious with the dog. 

But I'm also laughing. 

And I'm laughing so hard I get weak.  Sometimes I can't stand up because of the laughter.

I can't even yell at them, because my breath is all taken up with laughing.

I wet my pants, which makes me even angrier, which makes me laugh harder.

This tends to send mixed signals to the dogs and cats in my life (fortunately, I have had relatively few opportunities to warp the minds of children).  They simply cannot understand if I am angry or amused.  They get very confused.

I'm not doing it on purpose, I assure you.  I hate it that I laugh.  No one knows what the heck is going on and I can't blame them.  It confuses me too.

I'm pretty sure my husband doesn't understand it either.

Now, I don't always laugh when I'm angry.  (The laughter seems to happen most often when I am frustrated, especially if it involves Animals or small children.)  I do have other reactions, more normal.

But even the so-called normal reactions can have ramifications.

For instance, housework.  I am incapable of doing housework unless I am very, very angry.

I do hate doing housework --- that is a given.  But I also want a reasonably clean home. 

So when the house gets to the point where the dust bunnies should be charged rent, I clean. 

But it's a struggle of unbelievable proportions.  Just getting started is like pushing 75 pounds of wet cement across the floor -- and just about as appealing.

I find myself getting angry as I clean.  Angrier and angrier.  I will drag up things from years ago, things that don't really even bother me any more, but I will get angry all over again about them. 

But as I get angry, I get more energetic.  I channel that energy  into cleaning.  The dust flies, the broom takes on a life of it's own, piles of 'stuff' slowly melt as places are found for them  and the house gets clean (or at least cleaner), but I am in a terrible mood!

Sometimes when I am angry, I choose that time to do the cleaning, because since I am already angry, I might as well get something done. 

There is an upside.  You see, I have friends who have offered to get me angry when I am at their house so that I can clean their place.   That might work.

 If I play my cards right, my anger could end up being very, very popular.


6 comments:

  1. OOOoooooo - can I ever relate to this post!!! If God intended women to dust he`d have given us feathers for fingers! *tongue planted firmly in cheek* And your artwork is lovely!

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  3. Did you make a post above also in a state of angry?.
    I think every person have a unique way to overcome anger.
    But whether to keep the house clean, and you should be angry every day?.
    Throughout the expression of our emotions to positive things and not cause disturbance to others, we do not have to consider that as a problem.
    This isn't advice (because I'm younger than you), but the encouragement as a friend.
    As you said that, happy, sad, laugh, cry, angry, happy are part of us.
    Unfortunately modern society tend to be vulnerable to emotional disorders.
    There's one of view in our society that we should not be too happy when lucky, and should not be too sad when getting misfortune.

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  4. Many years ago when my daughter was in the Navy, she would complain about the idiotic behavior of those in command. She could not find rhyme or reason in many things she was ordered to do. She was angry, frustrated and in distress over the situation. I told her to get her sense of humor out of her pocket and put it on. Just mentally step back and look at how ridiculous the situation really was and do her best to follow the stupid orders. She would remain in control of her life by "choosing" to go along as ordered and seeing/enjoy a joke of the minute. My mother always said "If you can't lick them; then join them. It is the same advice with out the degree in psychology.

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  5. Dear, I can understand you very well!! I get angry very easily, and very easily start laughing and then crying, and then laughing again.... A doctor once told me it was because of my depression.
    I, too, use anger for doing homework, and my husband is warned not to tell me anything until I'm finished. :)
    You tangle is wonderful!!!

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  6. first of all i take everything :)love your tangle and use of colors!!!
    then i get angry when i have to do the homework,i consider it such a waist of time...

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