Flag Pole Sitta

What’s the difference between being paranoid and being perceptive?

I am one of those people who take note of everything happening around me. My mind then translates these notes in to assumptions. Yes, I know the old adage about what happens when you “ass-u-me,” but let’s face it, everyone does it.

Oddly, what happens AFTER I assume seems to define my actions. If I was totally off, I’m paranoid. If I was spot on, I’m perceptive. Really? Maybe I was just off that day!

I think that the real difference between those who are paranoid and those who are perceptive is just how good they are at interpreting the world around them. Do you interpret everything as having something to do with you? Paranoid. Do you think that nothing has to do with you? Clueless. Do you accurately interpret what is going on around you? Real.

I have spoken.

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry...

I've mentioned before that I'm not that good at being angry. 

Let me preface this with the fact that I honestly don't get to the point that I call true ANGER that often.  Most of my aggressions can be handled with simple sarcasm.  I get that out, I feel better.  However ... there are times when someone or something really gets to me.  When this rarity happens ... It.  Is.  On.

My first instinct is to become a weakness-seeking missile.  I have an uncanny ability to work the subject that will hurt you the most in to the conversation/argument.  Have an insecurity?  I will attack it.  My anger grips your insecurity in its locking jaws and then proceeds to bite and shake it until it is just a quivering mass of pathetic gelatin on the dirty, dirty ground. 

To put it lightly, I get mean. 

Please don't mistake me, I absolutely do not like this part of my personality!  I have learned over the years to really harness all of my self-control to keep the beast in check.  Unfortunately, I kind of went too far to the opposite for a few years.  This is also a bad idea.  I developed ulcers.  Now, I'm at a really good place where I can typically express myself somewhere in the middle.  I'm very happy about this.

However ... Don't push me too far.  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry...

Einstein was Right

Sometimes, you just have to put things in perspective.

In my former life (B.S. - Before Saatchi), I was a case manager and drug/alcohol counselor for Washington County Drug Treatment Court.  This was when I was about 22 years old.

One day, I realized that I had talked 4 people down from suicide, signed up for a class to get my concealed handgun permit, and was attacked by a meth-head diving over a table full of urine samples to try and choke me. 

This all happened in the course of a week.

I quit.

Now, there are days in my cushy corporate job where I think everything sucks or that this is the worst day ever.  Not true.  I need to think to myself, "Self, this is not nearly as bad as the day a meth-head dove over a table of urine samples to try and choke you." 

Hmm ... I think that saying would look lovely cross-stitched in to a sampler. 

The moral of the story: It's all relative.