Frustrated with Frustration

Living in a world of instant satisfaction I tend to get frustrated if things do not unravel instantly. And of course, they hardly ever do, and so I get frustrated. Everybody seems to be in a rush and this old octogenarian believes he has to rush along with the crowd.

Now take today. I received a financial statement accusing me of not paying a bill on time. Now I know I pay my bills upon reception or at least within two days. So if for some reason a bill was not paid there is another reason for the failure, not mine! Thus the frustration begins. I dig out my file of paid bills and go over them carefully. They are all neatly dated, stamped with the letters PAID, and assigned a confirmation number by the bank. I know I can save them on the computer but I like to get a solid paper copy even if they charge me a few cents more so that I have a quick and accessible  record to fall back on. Since examining bank statements was not how I had planned that part of my day the frustration starts to raise its ugly head. Why would they say to me, the guy who always pays the full bill on time  'Your rate will go up from 17% to 29.9% unless you pay immediately.' After all, interest is only charged when you make the minimum payment so it's kind of a useless threat anyway!  At this point the frustration is not debilitating, some form of extreme anger, it's just I'm 'pissed off' because I have to check my records, phone the company, and keep my cool. In the end we discovered that particular bill never found its way to the lobby mail box. Living in a condominium, sometimes mail ends up in the wrong slot, or is just tossed out when the receiver realizes it does not belong to him or her.

My frustration was proved unnecessary, as the problem was quickly solved.

But the same hassle occurs when working on my computer and I accidentally delete what I have been working on. Then of course, I forgot how to restore it! Did you ever try to get rid of one of those pop-up ads that keep appearing over and over!  Of course if you drive in a big city the traffic provides all sorts of lovely occasions to ignite my frustration fuse.

Perhaps frustration is not a strong enough word to express my developing anguish. I decided to look up the word frustration in the dictionary. I wanted to be sure I was not cascading into some form of cognitive dissonance or anger syndrome. The dictionary only added to the frustration as it defined frustration as 'The state of being frustrated'. A lot of help that was!

Actually the problem goes right back to 'instant satisfaction'. I am not patient enough, and always seem to be in a rush. Why, I don't know! A friend of mine is always saying slow down, what's your hurry? I really don't have an answer to that question seeing I have been retired for twenty years!

So I guess I will just have to start taking his advice. Read the instructions, learn how to properly use my cell phone, accept the traffic problems and finally just learn to slow down. If my world is spinning along too fast, it is because I'm trying to keep up with everybody else. Besides, I get frustrated when I am pushed!

The sailing season is upon us. I just might have to get out on the boat and let the wind blow me where it will and let the world spin along at its own rate without me.

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week.