As patient as I am deadly.

Now I’d guess that not all of these people actually NEED to be medicated, but the point is that one out of every five adults you meet FEEL like they need to be medicated.  And that’s scary.

A recent document published by the National Institute of Mental Health says that one in five Americans over the age of 12 is being medically treated for depression and one in five American adults is being medically treated for some sort of anxiety disorder.

In fact, that’s one of the big reasons I’m always carrying a gun with me.  I meet so many people every day that are teetering on the brink of insanity that I’ve become really wary of every stranger I meet.  I see people every day completely flip out over the most simple and random things…..You took my parking spot, you didn’t use your blinker, you’re driving too fast, you’re driving too slow, why are you looking at me like that, you’re rude, you’re fat, you’re rolling your eyes at me, you’re sunglasses are blocking your eyes, your sunglasses are stupid…..and THOSE ARE JUST THE THINGS PEOPLE SAY TO ME!!!!

So there I was in the middle of a gripe session, going on and on about how stupid someone was and how irrational they had acted.  And I said,  “THAT’S why I always carry a gun, because PEOPLE BE KRAZY”.

And then it occurred to me that if I was always ready to shoot someone because they might snap after an exceptionally bad day, maybe I should learn to be extra patient with people before they snap after an exceptionally bad day.

Now patience isn’t as cool as a gun.  James Bond never whipped out some patience to deal with Russian spies.  Fighter jets don’t have payloads of patience strapped to them to to take out terrorists.  And it’s a lot more work to carry patience everywhere with you than a gun.

But if we’re wiling to acknowledge that so many people might be legitimately mentally ill, or maybe just having a really bad day, or maybe unable to cope with a not so good day….maybe we (I) can be a good bit more patient with them.

I’m gonna work on realizing that when people flip out and honk at me in traffic or tell me how stupid looking my sunglasses are, it might not have anything to do with me.  It might just be that those people, for whatever reason, need me to be extra patient with them.

If I can spend hours preparing to protect my family from krazy people’s anger, I can spend that time preparing to protect krazy people from my anger too.

Who knows, I might even start open carrying some patience.  It’d be quicker to whip into action like that anyway.