People!

Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet all kinds of trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.    -St. James 1:2

People annoy the daylights out of me at times and it is the hardest thing for me to keep from responding to their insensitivities and intrusions in ways demonstrative and even violent. Most of it comes from their mistaken understanding of their own importance, a selfishness deeply rooted in their personalities. Short of a miracle or their deaths, nothing will ever cure these people of doing exactly what they want when they want without any regard for anyone's regard.

What I want to do is to lay out in a very logical fashion why they are wrong and what they need to do to become better people and leave me alone. Unfortunately, their own behavior makes it clear that they are impervious to logic or pleas to anything higher than their own egos. Then I fantasize about battle axes and dungeons, but that wouldn't really get them to come to any kind of a realization. They would go to their demise convincingly confessing their confusion and outrage at my solution to their trangressions.

It quickly becomes apparent that prayer and patience are all that remain with any chance of success. That understanding, however, does nothing to quell my baser emotions, so I offer them up as a sacrifice for the poor souls in Purgatory. At least some good will come of this.

Like me learning to see everyone as children of God.