Frustration

[cjsmith]

Do you ever hear someone pontificating -- preaching -- about something that's fairly new to him and old hat to you? Under what circumstances does it or does it not bug you?

I find I can mostly shrug it off when it's about some kind of technical subject. If I know the speaker is a total fool or severely misinformed, then that's just the way it is, with no need for irritation. But I find I can't shrug it off when it's about living with foot pain or staying fit with a disability. Usually the preacher is not permanently disabled, just temporarily injured in some way, and my GOD the things they think are Big News to someone who's dealt with this for years. Sometimes I think the speaker is trying to be helpful; other times it's pretty clear the speaker is trying to chide me for how I handle things. In the latter case I just want to SLAP the person. My kinder side hopes karma doesn't work, because the appropriate end story to that one is a permanent disability with chronic pain.

Clearly my buttons are getting pushed. I wonder when my foot problems will be so firmly an accepted part of me that I don't even have buttons to push any more. In the meantime, I hope I can mostly avoid that kind of person. I don't want to turn rude and bitter.

Comments

[meep.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are definitely people who seem to have diarrhea of the mouth.

It reminds me of the time (=cough=) I went to my Dad's funeral, and some idiot decided it was a good idea to say to my Grandma: "It's worse losing a child than a spouse". My Granddaddy died just the year before.

Some people can't help but step in it. Most of the time, they really do think they're being helpful. But they do end up looking like idiots.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Worst for me are the ones who haven't lost either a child or a spouse -- they've lost a favorite pen, or they've been separated from their kid in a department store but got him back -- and who start lecturing me on how to cope. Blech. :-P

[just-cyd.livejournal.com]

(how about a character on their favorite TV show. i got that when mom died. yes, really.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Umm. Uhhhhhh. There are no words.

*hug*, just because, on behalf of everyone who has ever not known what to say at a funeral. (Myself included I'm sure.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

...and yikes, that's just awful. I wonder if the person truly had no idea. :-(

[meep.livejournal.com]

Considering my Dad was getting buried right next to my Granddad, and that this all went on in a small town in South Carolina, they had to have known. I =think= they were trying to show their empathy, in saying something like "I know this must be horrible for you" but that all-important step to think things through before saying something in a sensitive situation was bypassed.