It's not what we say, but how...

Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.

Eric Hoffer

I learned again today that there are right ways and wrong ways to talk to people. I got told at work that I was "pissing" someone off and "if I knew what was fucking good for me" I would stop whistling immediately. At first I was stunned by how blatant his use of profanity was, then I was surprised that he said it, then I stopped whistling.
Obviously, this was said to goad me into some kind of a response. To get me to do something which I would later be sorry that I did. Unfortunately, I didn't do anything, I just stopped whistling and continued on with my workday.
Inside my mind however this led to a snowball effect, it made me sad, than angry. It bothered me until I got home and then I got angry with my wife. I never get angry with my wife and I allowed this moron to get me angry enough that I took it out on my wife. This person who means less to me than a flea on a dog crap affected my whole day. He got what he intended and I let him get it. This won't happen to me again.
There are some people in life who push our buttons. We need to realize what it is about these people that affects us so negatively or we will fall again and again into this trap of anger and frustration. For me, I have a real hard time understanding what it is about this person that bothers me. Is it the fact that he talks to people like he is above them but actually he is just a scared, little man? Is it the preferential treatment that he shows to some at the expense of almost all others? Is it the fact that he is totally and utterly unqualified to do the job that he holds? It is probably a combination of all of these things. It is a rare combination, I can honestly say that there have only been two other people in my life that I have despised as much as I do this person.
My daughter is also going to run into people occasionally with whom she won't get along. I need to be able to show her how to deal with it when it happens to her. As of now I am totally incapable of teaching her this skill. As I have written in a few past blog entries I do not claim to be perfect or fully developed in all areas. This is certainly one area that I can use a lot of improvement in. Perhaps this is why this person has wound up in my life. Maybe fate realized that I am inadequate in this area so I am supposed to try and work things out with this person. Maybe I just need to get over it, move on and adopt the motto "some people are just asses". Whatever I am supposed to do, I hope that I figure it out before I have to go back to work on Thursday.