Monday, February 2, 2015

Peevish Pets, Pet Peeves, or What You Will

Every so often when I'm out and about, a thought strikes me and I think, "That really drives me crazy. That's just such a pet peeve of mine." Inevitably, a snarky Facebook-status one-liner pops into my head and I plan to tuck it away until I can get on a computer later and post it. Also inevitably, I stop myself on that train of thought and think, "Man, every time I label something as a pet peeve, I seem to see it pop up even more often."

I've been thinking about it a lot, and I'm come to the conclusion that the phrase "pet peeve" shouldn't be in my vocabulary. For me, I've found that once I use it as a label, I almost feel allowed to be annoyed about it, as if by giving it a name, I've enabled it to make me into a grump. If, however, I fight through that feeling and put it aside without labeling it, I find that I'm much more graciously able to move on from it without making it into a mountain.

I also had more mentally written out in my head about this, but apparently my head has gone visiting and it took my thoughts with it.