Taking It Out On Cherries

It's funny how my attitude changes throughout the month. Sometimes I'm totally cool about something but a few days later just thinking about it makes me furious. Let me explain in the comfort of my anonymity.

Let's say there's a person in my life called X who loves cherries. Obsessed with cherries. X talks about nothing but cherries, buys them all the time, stuffs face with them and afterwards, tells me about every single one. Said X will tell me in detail all the kinds of cherries out there: colour, size, sweetness, nutrition value, price per pound, crazy things they tell X to do, etc. So the point is: CHERRIES RULE.

I don't mean to pick on cherries, it was just the first thing I thought of. I had to think of something I'm not really impartial to, and I'm not a fan of cherries (except Don). But for the sake of ambiguity I'm projecting my relationship with this meaningless fruit into a metaphor for something totally unrelated.

So. Some days when the conversation is all about cherries I sit there trying to stay interested and open. It's not X's fault I'm not a fan of cherries, so if it's what X likes shouldn't I as a friend (or available ear) in return partake in the cherry talk? While X is nattering on about cherries I may actually think "maybe cherries aren't so bad, I should give cherries a chance".

A few days later I might think how horrible it is that X has such an obsession with the damn fruit. Why? Why? Why? I hate cherries, stop talking about cherries, why does it have to be cherries all the time??!? I don't care how much they cost or when they're in season. Aaagghh!! I also have these stupid conversations in my head that make me more and more angry with X even though it's all imagined. But I'm angry because I know what I'm thinking could totally be reality when it comes to X.

Then maybe I know I'll be seeing X and dreading it because of my totally unprovoked anger. There's really no logic to it, but as I am a person who doesn't believe in the "I choose not to be angry, rather I will accept." crap, (come on, if it pisses you off, it pisses you off. Let it run its course instead of repressing and pretending it doesn't bother you. Otherwise you'll brood and think about it forever and isn't that worse in the long run?) I let myself be angry.

But then maybe by the time I see X my irrational anger will have dissipated and I'll look back and think "geez (self), who pissed in your oatmeal? So X loves cherries, who cares? X is still a nice person." Such is the life of the ever changing hormone(/anger) cycle I suppose.