A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
By Rich Trzupek
Angry People
What follows will be a short-hand version of an actual conversation. Explitives have been deleted, not to protect the innocent (for there aren�t any innocents involved) but because fella in question dropped enough f-bombs to get page 8 of this publication on fire.
Sporting my vintage Bears jacket, a young fellow asked me: �Are you a real Bears fan, or a bandwagon jumper?�
�This is an �85 original buddy,� I replied. I figured that was a sufficient answer, for I had been as fan during that glorious season and have remained a fan�through good times and bad�long before that and ever since.
�I hate bandwagon jumpers. And you want to know why?��
I really didn�t want to know why, but it would have been impolite to admit it. �Why?� I asked.
�Because I had to pay $180 for a seat to watch the Bears last week. And they weren�t even good seats. It�s ridiculous. And it�s all because of all the bandwagon jumpers.�
Remember�to put a true flavor of this conversation, sprinkle f-bombs approximately every three words. This was an angry young man.
After a good deal more rage, featuring language that would make Howard Stern blush, he eventually departed. Thank God.
While it was not an especially enlightening bit of dialogue, it did provide fruit for reflection. This guy is a symptom of a persuasive disease�for there are an awful lot of angry people out there.
Most of the time, I understand why they�re so mad, but I don�t think they understand. And that�s kind of scary. Raw emotion, without direction, is a very dangerous thing.
Anger is a second emotion. It inevitably follows another emotion, like hurt, or disappointment, or fear. Anger is a way to deal with those deeper, more painful feelings.
Anger is easy. It�s a cop-out. Which is to say that it�s much easier to yell than to cry.
It�s also inevitable. At some point in his life, even Ghandi must have gotten yanked off at somebody�for putting too much starch in his shorts, or for scribbling �non-violence is for wussies,��on the wall or something. Everybody gets mad, some time, even your humble, mild-mannered correspondent.
It�s not that anger is bad, per se, it�s rather that it should not become a habit. There are people who live in a perpetual state of fury, falling back on anger at every opportunity, like a heroin addict who needs his next fix. And that�s just sad.
It�s sad for them. Perpetually angry people miss out on so much of life. More than anything, they miss out on knowing people. Most of us don�t care to hang out with the chronically angry, no matter how good a person the individual in question might be.
So we avoid them more often than not, and that just makes them more angry. They�ve got few, if any, real friends and they figure that is just another example of how everyone is out to screw them. It is, inevitably, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The phenomenon is especially troubling when it comes to kids. It shows up among teens more than any other young age group, most often manifesting itself as the sullen, �I don�t give a damn about anything,� and �just leave me alone you retard,� attitude that parents know and love.
Being teens, the kids who choose that route seem to think that they�re being original. They have no way of knowing that �sullen disdain,� is a time-honored teen tactic that goes back to the beginning of time. Prehistoric teens undoubtedly spent the majority of time sulking around their cave, disgusted by their parents� refusal to let them wear a modish cut of bearskin.
Eventually, those teens generally grow out of that�including yours truly (who made a spirited run at the all-time record for teen sullenness). It�s part of the deal, but it�s a shame�there is so much of life that these teens miss out on, during those are the years that should be most fun and most care-free.
�You only go around once� the old beer commercial proclaimed. Indeed.
with one shot, shouldn�t we all try to find excuses to laugh, instead of musing over reasons to be miserable? Call it a simplistic outlook if you will, but there is so much misery in the world that we can not control, shouldn�t we look for a laugh or two when we have a choice?