Non-Issues

I find it fascinating the things that some people take issue with.  They can get upset by so many things that seem trivial and unimportant, issues that when all is said and done really mean almost nothing to anyone.  I recently saw someone get so upset with a desk that someone had thrown away at an apartment complex that he pushed it over rather violently and broke it to pieces, even though someone had left it there near the trash can so that someone else might be able to use it.  But this man found it somehow necessary to get upset about the fact that there was a desk there, not in a trash can like it was "supposed" to be.  He felt an undue amount of stress for little to no reason, taking issue with something that truly wasn't an issue at all.  So he broke it.

I think that most of us could take lessons in learning what to walk by and ignore and what to truly take issue with.  I know I could.  I sometimes take issue with things that twenty or thirty minutes later seem incredibly trivial, and definitely not worth the time and energy I had spent stressing out about it.  I might take issue with the fact that a neighbor is being loud, only to realize in a while that they really aren't being all that loud--just a bit louder than normal, or a bit louder than I'm used to.  I might take issue with a person's comments about someone or something, only to figure out later that that person had every right in the world to make the comments--or that the comments themselves really weren't what they seemed to be.

Sometimes, of course, people do things that we must take issue with--things that harm other people, or have the potential to harm others.  But most of the time I find that the things I take issue with really aren't issues at all, and I'd be conserving my energy and feeling much better in general if I just let them slide right by me, focusing instead on getting the most out of all the positive things that I do have in my life.