It's All Fired Up

Have you ever wondered why you keep meeting so many jerks? Or, why so many other people are depressed or just awful…or?

When I’m driving like a speed demon because I’m late to something or rushed, every other driver is a terrible driver. They are slow, in the wrong lane, or otherwise vehicularly impaired. It is not that I am weaving or speeding because I’ve misjudged my calendar or am frustrated, it is that everyone else simply cannot drive. It is odd isn’t it, that when I’m in absolutely no rush, I take note of (and mock) every rushed and frustrated driver zipping in and around impeding traffic?

The idea that you are what you eat has spiritual and emotional resonance as well. When we allow vindictiveness or anger or bitterness or depression to take hold of our hearts and minds, everything we encounter becomes likewise tainted. When I meet three jerks in one day, I might just be a jerk.

I can always tell when I’m at fault for the mood of a situation when my children begin to annoy me. They can behave the same way one day to the next and my response to them will vary wildly. Owning this truth is helping me better modulate how I view the world in general. Half of life is what we bring to the table.

As the old sailor metaphor puts it best: “It is not the water outside the boat that sinks it, it the water that gets in.”