A Flip Of The Switch

What does it take to flip your switch? The switch I am referring to is, of course, the switch that sets you off, that gets the water boiling over, that gets steam pouring out of your ears.

Is it being cut off in traffic? Is it being insulted? Is it when you feel like someone is taking advantage of you? How about when someone steals something from you? Or maybe when somebody betrays your trust - is that it?

For me, it's disrespect. Disrespect in my book is defined as treating someone with contempt for absolutely no reason at all. It's being rude, insolent, and insulting all at once.

Allow me to present an example. If you are hosting someone in your home for dinner, or for any reason really, and that person behaves in an uncivil manner towards you or maybe one of your guest, and when asked to apologize actually repeats the action...well, now the line between behaving crassly and being disrespectful has been crossed. 

And that's what can flip my switch faster than a bolt of lightning dancing across the far horizon. I cannot stand to be disrespected. I will put up with a lot from people, but when it comes to blatant, hostile disrespect, that's when the alarms go off and the fuse is lit.

I guess it comes down to wanting to be treated as respectfully as I treat others. In the course of my daily interactions with people, I assume everybody is doing the best they can to live a pleasant life that does not include being intentionally inconsiderate to others.

When I do encounter someone that is being inconsiderate, I tend to give them the benefit of the doubt - maybe that guy who cut me off is rushing to the hospital because a loved one has been injured. Maybe that woman who has 37 items in the express lane has to get home to a sick child. Maybe that guy who is staring me down across the bar has just been left by his wife and I unfortunately remind him of the guy she left him for.

My thinking and actions haven't always been that generous, of course, but hey, everyone mellows as they age. If they're lucky. Otherwise you get high blood pressure, ulcers, heart attacks, etc - so choose to mellow if you can.  

Back to what I haven't been able to mellow out about. I'm fairly sure it's due to the circumstances of my upbringing - being raised by a single-parent, poor, having little or nothing to speak of in terms of material possessions, having to deal with the taunts of my peers, etc., etc. 

Is that a violin I hear playing in the distance?

So? What sets you off? Is being disrespected water off a duck's back to you? I know people who can handle being disrespected with aplomb - it never ceases to amaze me.