This morning, as I sipped my cappuccino at my local cafe, another regular walked in. She speaks incredibly loudly and wears an irritatingly large hat. Although she’s never done anything other than be loud and large-hatted, just the sight of her face makes me cross.
I’m easily incensed these days, but I don’t think I’m alone in my rage. At that same cafe a few weeks ago, I watched a grown man yell at the barista when he discovered he’d been missing out on their loyalty card program. It would have saved him a maximum of about $4 every 10 days, hardly enough to justify a man-tantrum on a Sunday morning.
I even get angry at people like me, people who are grumpy all the time. Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Still, I suspect it wasn’t about the money. There is a lot to be furious about in the world right now, and in the face of it all – climate change, the cost-of-living crisis , two old men competing to be leader of the free world, war , evil billionaires – we are frustratingly impotent.
And, so, we fume at very specific, trivial things that are more within our circles of control. We need targets for our anger, and we find them, everywhere. I get angry when I use a public bathroom, and cannot work out how to use the tap.
Do I press it? Turn it? Wave my hands like a dancer underneath it? I have spent countless minutes – hours, probably – fluttering my hands in the vicinity of a sink in the hopes of getting them wet, and honesty, it’s humiliating! If I manage .
