It's a (not so) fine line

It's not fer nothin' we call AR "The One with the Rage."

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I must point out that we'd all be a lot better off if AnnaRay could just learn to express herself; only then will random people in Portland be safe from walking into the path of her wrath. You don't see me going around kicking the canes out from under blind people - except for that one time, but that was only because I never watch where I'm going. We all have our issues.

Anyway, I think therapy is a great idea, but it will only help to a certain extent if a certain someone doesn't learn to let it out. Knowing where the rage is coming from is all well and good, but keeping it pent up is what causes the real problems. The other day my panties were all in a bunch about some misunderstanding or other, and I raised my voice in an effort to make myself understood because I didn't think people were listening to me, and a not-so-innocent bystander told me to relax. Everything was all right, he said. Well, everything was alright until someone told me to relax because he felt uncomfortable with a little bit of tension.

I did not kick his ass. Though I think I would have been justified, because what's more passive aggressive than telling someone to "relax" during a disagreement? It's like saying, "I don't have to listen to you because you are out of control."

I loath passive aggressive. It's dishonest and cowardly.

I'm not saying we should be like my aggressive aggressive father, who can't make it through a meal without someone storming off over something he said. By his own admission, my father sends so much flak into the air that he can't even remember what offensive thing he said to whom. Of course, he sleeps like a baby at night, having released all his toxin into the air for the rest of us to lie awake and deal with.

There's got to be a happy medium, I think, between unchecked, indiscrimintory, toxin-spewing rage and suppressing your justified anger until your head pops off. I might have a tendency to yell at times, but I've never been one for extremes.