When People Pop

Watch­ing myself and oth­ers under pres­sure is both amus­ing and edu­ca­tional. Sooner or later we pop. It is like blow­ing up a bal­loon until it bursts. All sorts of metaphors and analo­gies come into play on this lit­tle dynamic. It is all about cumu­la­tive stress and our meth­ods of han­dling it.

Each per­son, on his or her way to pop­ping, has a par­tic­u­lar style. Some of us “back up then blow up.” Oth­ers announce their explo­sion with, “That’s it!” Some refer to it as, “the last straw.” Another com­mon expres­sion has to do with get­ting on a person’s “LAST NERVE.” All of these have to do with bury­ing frus­tra­tions or being overly tol­er­ant. More fre­quently, it is because we are injus­tice col­lec­tors, per­fec­tion­ists, or just peo­ple try­ing to be nice.

We live in the para­dox of a coun­try that is both over-controlled and pro­gres­sively out of con­trol at the same time. The inequities and injus­tices are the fod­der of talk shows and the news. Add the irra­tional to the for­mula and it makes for the pres­sures we all feel. Every so often, we go off the edge together.

What you learn by pop­ping or watch­ing oth­ers pop is the real gift. It is in real­iz­ing that you too are a social ther­mome­ter or emo­tional pres­sure meter. You will also notice that you are not exempt from the gen­eral mood of the pop­u­lace. When peo­ple pop together you can get con­flicts that range from domes­tic issues, to riots, to wars.

Notice how peo­ple med­icate — legally and ille­gally. It keeps the coun­sel­ing indus­try in funds — as well as the legal sys­tem. Sadly, it fills med­ical offices. Eighty per­cent of major dis­eases begin with chronic stress. Our uncivil but civil-enough civ­i­liza­tion comes with a price. The price is paid in life quality.

Be con­tent with what you have (Jesus, John the Bap­tist, and Paul all preached this theme). Do not col­lect injus­tices. Turn off the news. Stop tak­ing your­self and oth­ers so seri­ously. Escape the mad­den­ing crowd of mind­less imi­ta­tors. Walk beside the still waters within while chaos sur­rounds you. Pay more atten­tion to how you want to feel than how you are tempted to feel. If you pop, apol­o­gize and begin again.