Lashing Out In Frustration

I saw a guy spit on a bus today. The light had changed, and it was time for the pedestrians to walk. The bus was making a turn and had to wait until the light in his direction turned red to get through the intersection. It's a fairly common scenario. As a pedestrian, you have to double check that the interaction is clear.

A guy waiting across the street from me apparently took offense to the bus' late entry into the crosswalk. So he puckered up and spit on the bus. The bus driver didn't notice; he was looking straight ahead, not to the side where the spitting man was standing. And the bus obviously didn't sustain any damage from the saliva. 

No meaning was communicated via the gesture. The spitter lashed out like a two-year-old to no effect whatsoever except to express his own inability to cope with frustration. 

Lashing out in frustration is perhaps the lowest level of the human experience. It demonstrates an acute loss of control over ones own emotional stability. And yet, it's extremelh common. We all get frustrated from time to time, occasionally to the point of lashing out at others. But some people live in this state, people who are quick to lash out at others in expression of their own frustration. It's pathetic. It's frightening. Unfortunately, it explains a lot of the negative incidents that occur in our lives and in society in general.

Copyright © 2014 Daniel R. South 

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