Beech Tree News Network

I don’t know about you, but occasionally I get aggravated. To me, aggravation means an annoyance or an action that makes a problem worse. Although events affect each of us differently, many will acknowledge that they feel annoyed by specific situations or people.

Since people are aggravated by different things, I asked several (ages 12 to 70) to name one thing that aggravates, annoys, irritates, or frustrates them. Their responses are below:
•    K-prep testing.
•    My spouse.
•    People with a negative attitude about life, rude people, and those who are unhappy overall or ungrateful in general.
•    Druggies and people who abuse the health care system to get drugs.
•    Someone who treats someone else unfairly.
•    Tardiness because it is disrespectful.
•    Companies and government agencies that treat individuals unfairly, such as withholding health care from retired individuals.
•    Slow drivers.
•    TV shows with sexual content.
•    When healthy people wear pajama pants and house shoes to public places.
•    The ineffectiveness of a factional political government in a nation with the potential to become so much more.
•    When you find a TV program you like, but you’ve missed the whole season – or more.
•    Telemarketers or solicitors calling for a contribution, especially computer-generated calls.
•    People who aren’t friendly.
•    My adult children, politicians, and lack of control.

Some other opinions about aggravation or irritation are expressed below:
•    Monday is like a math problem. Add the irritation, subtract the sleep, multiply the problems, and divide the happiness. –Unknown
•    Anything that happens enough times to irritate you will happen at least once more. –Tom Parkins
•    Between friends differences in taste or opinion are irritating in direct proportion to their triviality. –W. H. Auden

Some things that aggravate me include manipulation and nosiness (Family members are not included in this; I give them an automatic pass to be inquisitive.). Finding litter in my yard is irritating. Feeling that my children or grandchildren want to roll their eyes because of something I’ve said may be annoying. Attempting to contact an unavailable person by phone can also become exasperating. And, these are only tiny aggravations.

Carl Jung said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” That’s probably true. And, Proverbs 12:16 (NIV) says, “A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.” That one’s hard.