Ballantine Man Berates Arizona Visitor

My Dad had a saying I try to live by: You're only as big as the smallest thing that makes you angry.

New vocabulary has described the social environment these past few years: Triggered, Snowflake, Karen.  And both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of this.

Oop, I can hear you now.  "We don't do that."

Really?

Recently on a talk show, a caller from Ballantine told the story of his bad day at a gas station.  Here it is in his own words.  This is lengthy, three minutes, same as a song.  Name is withheld.

Poor Mood Makes Poor Decisions

I would say this Caller could be charged with destruction of private property, beating on a gas pump, but the machine would probably do more harm to his hand than vice versa.

In the confrontation with the driver from Arizona, if words were blows, who threw the first punch?  Caller did with the crack about this a red state.  Arizona responded about voting and the verbal fight was on.

I didn't even understand the groceries in August comment.  Dear Reader, if you got this line, please explain it to me.  Yet it was enough to set off our man in Ballantine further.

Caller's behavior is past impolite and into dangerous.  He had no idea what the visitor from Arizona was capable of doing or if he stored a weapon in his car.  To boil this down to two words: Road Rage.

Sleep it Off

A simple bit of advice for Caller and anyone having a bad day.  Go home as soon as possible.  Don't stop for errands, gas, mail or anything.  Avoid associating with others.  Upset people are not in the right frame of mind for social interactions.

Once home, don't do any work there yet, just lie down and have a nap.  This is actually much tougher than it sounds; I have lost a lot of sleep many times fussing over things. Still, everything will wait nicely until the brain and spirit has a rest.

Next step is to do a pleasant activity.  Hug and kiss your partner, play with the kids, take the pet on a walk.  Again, any tasks can wait for you.

Gentle Reader, these are trying times.  I'm convinced we are living at a macrocosmically high stress level.  Blowing up at people will only worsen the situation and could create more trouble than you can handle.  Let your imagination fill in the awful details.

Dad had another saying: You can live to 100 in a small town if you keep your mouth shut.

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