Each of us get excited from time to time for various, oftentimes personal, reasons. Even I succumb to the emotion from time to time. But, like all things, there is a time and a place for excitement and there are times and places where excitement is not a healthy, normal reaction. Let me give you an example.
Several months back, the son and I went to an all day seminar / conference for the local storm spotters group. The son was going as he really likes weather and weather related things. I was going as I either lost a bet with the wife or some similar reason (rock, paper scissors didn’t go my way, etc.). The son was really looking forward to this, he was excited. I was looking forward to this about as much as I look forward to a dentist visit. We arrived a little early and I was very surprised at the large turnout. We found some good seats and settled in for the first session. The room was almost entirely filled with folks as excited about weather things as my son and this suited him just fine. We ended up not staying all day (the afternoon sessions were a bit over our heads really) but I noticed a theme for the parts that we did attend. The worse a storm was (they talked about recent storms and showed several videos), the more excited and animated these people became. I have chided my son for this way of behaving as with bad weather comes damage, injuries and overall human suffering. To be happy or (worse yet) wish / root for severe weather without considering the human suffering side of things is something I am working with him on. I have asked him several times to tone down his excitement when our weather radio goes off announcing when we are under some weather alert or warning. But here we were, in a room full of people that acted just like him. Now I was the odd one out. His behavior and reaction was justified it seemed (to him anyway).
The wife and I talk about this feature of our son on occasion (usually right after bad weather). She is on the “he’ll grow out of it” side of things and I am on the “he will end up on TV doing some report outside when a hurricane hits McKinney” side of things. I think we both agree that his excitement is inappropriate. During our talks, we often end up on the “who does he get this from?” subject and of course we both deny being the origin of this behavior. However, in this case, my wife is wrong.
My wife also exhibits inappropriate excitement from time to time and it also involves human suffering, namely mine. You see, she likes to fancy herself an expert on homeopathic remedies for various illnesses. A person in this line of work needs to experiment and one can only experiment on live subjects and no one usually volunteers for this sort of thing so you can understand that she gets quite excited whenever I am sick. There is a special sparkle in her eye when she hears me cough or sneeze that I only remember from early in our courtship and on special occasions like our wedding day. Oh, she tries to feign sympathy and compassion, but her excitement over a live (captive) test subject trumps all other shown emotions.
I woke up this morning around 4:30 with a headache and a slightly stuffy nose. My stomach felt a bit off as well. I cannot tell you what I dreaded more, being sick or being an unwilling patient. I thought about trying to hide my feeling bad but it is hard to do. Also, once she discovers my illness, I do not know what to root for, to feel better (due to her treatment and thus encourage her) or to continue being sick (to perhaps make her give up her profession). It is a tough call. Though I deny it to her face, her treatments do seem to work. I am sick for a shorter period of time than anyone I know. I chalk this up to clean living but the wife tends to take all the credit.
At any rate, I am pretty sure that this is where the son get’s his habit of inappropriate excitement from. And one more thing, I am feeling much better as of the time of this blog posting.
Jon
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