Are you mad yet?

Usually I just delete forwards from people constantly riled up about something. I learned a long time back that these "urgent" pieces of information often have traveled the Internet many times over or that they're filled with baseless facts meant to incite our basest instincts----like to go get a gun and kill someone.

I actually opened one of those forwards yesterday, however, and printed it just to show a visitor how ridiculously overzealous some people are in their mission to keep everyone else as upset, unhappy or paranoic as they are.

Sure enough it was the same Archie Bunker-style rhetoric, laced with hatred and indignation about all the horrid, evil stuff going on out there in the world which is surely going to take away our rights and all our freedoms---especially the one freedom which allows us to send that kinda crap on the Internet in the first place.

At the end, it read something to the effect of, "Are you mad yet?"

Well, yes, I was.

I wasn't mad the way the sender wanted me to be, however. Instead, I was mad that this person keeps sending this stuff to me, thinking they're going to get me riled up.

While discussing the forward with my visitor, we both wondered what motivates people to spend so much time wantonly suffering from "the mad-as-hell syndrome" and insisting on spreading their affliction to others. We also both agreed that if all this bad stuff is gonna happen, why not enjoy life so that when our lives are ruined by evil doers out to get us, we at least have the good times to remember.

We kinda figured these people who are mad all the time are missing the boat a bit. If you're mad all the time now and evil takes over and ruins your life, doesn't that spell a double dose of misery.

After the conversation about the forwards, I just said I'll keep on deleting them and trying to get some enjoyment out of life. My visitor concurred.

Granted, there are plenty of reasons to get mad. Almost every morning, my mile-long hose provides me motivation to cuss when it kinks up for no reason. Can someone tell me why a hose kinks up with only one gentle flip while traveling across a flat lawn and why it takes at least half a dozen twists to unkink the damn thing?

Now, that makes me mad, and what really makes me mad is when it refuses after a half dozen attempts and I have to walk clear across the lawn to remove the kink. And, what makes me even madder than that is when it rekinks the minute I turn my back and start walking forward. Now, there's a conspiracy!

And, then there's that white clover that thinks it's so pretty. Why does it have to grow SO fast and make my lawn look all scraggly two days after mowing. I'm just about as mad at the clover as I am in May when the dandelions keep recycling themselves all over my lawn as often as those irritating forwards from mad people appear in my inbox.

I still haven't gotten mad at the behind-the-barn pool, even after it drained itself yesterday. There is no explanation as yet what happened, but one of my Facebook friends said "maybe it was the deer." And we did see a deer run through our yard last night. The pool had water in the morning but not much left in the afternoon after I returned from a trip to Spokane.

Could be those deer are watching my habits, and it could be they frolicked in the pool while I was gone. Damn well better not have punched a hole in the pool with their sharp hooves. Now, that would make me AND Bill mad. And, he doesn't get mad too often.

Winter in North Idaho makes me mad a lot too. Readers know that because I get cooped up and need something to do and I complain a lot on the blog. Maybe I've found the answer.

In the winter, I can transfer my aggression from Mother Nature to the forward fanatics. Maybe I can make up some new lies to spread and to fuel the conspiracy, paranoic pots and work really hard to find something to send that makes someone else really, really mad.

No, I'm not gonna do that. Life is too short. Energy spent enjoying our lives, appreciating our surroundings, our friends and family and spreading a little cheer or positive vibes to others feels a heckuva lot better than the alternative, I think.