Did you ever notice that as your vacation approaches, your patience gets thinner? Every day closer to that vacation you increasingly think “Man, I need a break” or “This job is driving me crazy”. Those negative thoughts that you generally push down deep to the pit of your stomach, are allowed to surface and gain traction. Do you experience this? Asking for a friend…
Well, I have some time off coming up and it got me thinking. As we approach the end of Covid stresses and lockdowns are we all going to get increasingly testy? I mean, I hope we are all going to continue to celebrate the wins, enjoy patio time and small gatherings again, become increasingly joyful. But what if we are not? What if the population begins to suffer “pre-relief syndrome?” What if people are done with pushing the bad thoughts down? What if they are teetering on the edge of complete breakdown or an all-out rage-fest; like a toddler who just lost his sucker?
And that is why I am sending out this warning to anyone who will listen…you never know who you are dealing with so PLEASE, Don’t poke the bear!
The other day my husband was walking our dog when another dog approached. My husband sat our dog down and gave him treats. The woman walking the other dog thought she would share with my husband what he was doing wrong. You should know that our dog is not only huge but he also has doggy anger issues So, we have worked with a trainer to keep him from pulling our arms out of their sockets while trying to make mincemeat out of other dogs. Did this lady know that? No. Did she know my husband was following the training protocol and keeping her and her dog safe? No. Did she know anything at all about the situation? No. But she dolled out the criticism anyway. Luckily for her, my husband is not one of us those who are teetering on the edge. I can’t promise that had it been me, a generally very nice person, the kind of person who would give up her seat on the bus, the kind of person who picks up garbage off the side of the road, but also the same person who has been pulled to the ground more times than I care to count buy this same dog, who has spent innumerable dollars on physio and chiro because of this dog, who has been training said dog for a year, wouldn’t have snapped and let our killer dog have at it.
Also recently, we were walking near our cottage when we passed two women. We smiled, said “Good morning” and received death stares in return. (They may or may not have been suffering from the suppressed rage of PRS themselves) After they passed, one intentionally raised her voice and said something ending with “lock-down.” Incidentally, we were within our rights to spend 24 hours at our cottage to check on things and do maintenance. Well, she might not have liked that we were there, but you know what else she might not have liked? Watching a sweet-looking, hand-knit-sweater-wearing kinda mama turn into 5 foot 2 inches of pure rage coming at her. Now, I’m not saying it’s right. It’s wrong, very wrong. It’s 5-10-for-aggravated-assault-kind-of-wrong. What I’m saying is DON’T POKE THE BEAR!
I’m telling you, innocent-looking, soft-spoken people may be about to pull a Bruce Banner. Maybe we should have warning labels available at corner stores. “Woman on the edge” or “You don’t want to see me angry” or the catchy “Shut your gate or suffer your fate”.
The medical community does not currently recognize PRS but, in the interest of public safety, I’m putting this information out there. So; be kind, be safe, wear a mask and please, please DON’T POKE THE BEAR!