It Is Enough If You Just Skip This One ….

It’s a problematic proposition, and normally one I actually enjoy examining and unraveling. It is, of course, less amusing for those living in the moment. Meanwhile, it is very easy to see how this works:

• A does not appreciate the behavior of B.

• Behavior of B is observably a reaction to behavior of A.

• As A attempts to engage discussion of B behavior, B responds that the discussion cannot take place without consideration of A behavior.

• A walks away from the discussion.

To sum it up in a very juvenile manner, A wants to continue to offend B through recognizably offensive behavior patterns, and expects B to simply shut up and behave. That A and B are allegedly mature adults is interesting, exasperating, and probably largely irrelevant, of course, unless A wants to make this about B being childish.

We might also include or disregard, according to wont, the suggestion that it is rather quite silly, and even pathetic, that such circumstances occur so regularly in our lives.

Perhaps as a side note, were I a Freudian—as, unfortunately, I am—one could reasonably argue it became evident last night that my own mother wants me dead. Luckily, there are all sorts of ways around this argument, the first being that Freudianism in the twenty-first century must necessarily make more subtle observations and calculations; the second being that even as such there are so many variables, known and unknown, about the human psyche and relationship between mind and brain, that actually believing the reasonable argument true would be an unreliable, invalid, and ultimately irresponsible outcome for one in my position. Or we could just skip to the third and say, Come on, that’s just stupid. To the other, sometimes the obvious answer isn’t satisfying because it is also the lazy answer. The comfort of sloth is inertial, and thus brings no progress without additional forces bearing alternate vectors.

Still, though, there is a saying that friends are the family you choose; your family are the strangers you live with.

Life goes on for the living, but every once in a while it occurs that we need to step back, take a deep breath, and appreciate the astounding perversity that is our human condition.