Do you ever meet people who will, at all costs, attempt to corner you and verbally attack you for no reason whatsoever?

     Most everyone tells me how easy I am to get along with, and feel that they talk to me about anything and everything because I actually listen.  They also tell me that I wear my heart on my sleeve a lot, and tend not to come asking a lot of questions when I appear to be stressed or shaken.
     I have two people in my life who go out of their way to ignore all of that.  Instead, they prefer to sit back and make verbal assaults, threaten me with violence and make sure to tell me that it’s all my fault that they are so angry.  It’s nonsense, and I have no time for it.

     Mind you, if I’m having lunch with one of them and that sort of thing starts, I’ll get up and walk out.  If they call me on the phone, I’ll hang up.  If I see them in public and wave to them and they glare at me and walk in the other direction, I’m certainly not going to chase them down.
     These actions, however, are mortal sins in their eyes.

     Two weeks ago, I was taken to lunch by one of them, and before I finished eating, the tirade started.  It was vicious, and completely one-sided.  I simply got up and walked out of the restaurant.
     This, of course, started a series of calls to my office phone and cellphone, complete with hateful, spiteful voicemails.  Apparently, getting up and walking away is “immature” and “weak,” and illustrative of what a “disgrace” I am.

     Later that night, after the walking-away-at-the-restaurant incident, she decided to physically corner me.  As I attempted to leave, she ran around me like a pack of rabid chihuahuas, spewing incessant, inflammatory ankle-biting.  The blood-lust in her eyes glowed in the dark, and the acidic venom coming from her mouth was enough to pierce my thick skin.
     Fight or flight kicked in.  I was cornered with nowhere to go, and I finally blew up and gave her the verbal bashing she needed.  Of course, that’s never the end of it, is it?  Instead, she attempted to hit me, throw things at me and scream bloody murder.
     Fortunately, while she was preoccupied trashing the place and finding something else to kick and throw, I took the opportunity to get the Hell out of there.
     I don’t need that.  Nobody needs that.

     Of course, that didn’t stop her from running and telling everyone what I said.  Nevermind the events leading up to it, or what happened after — the important thing is what I said, and nothing else matters.
     And thus, we come to party number two.  Three times in the last two weeks, he’s called and started screaming at me, prompting me to simply hang up.  I don’t have time for that, especially when I’m working.
     Yes, working, mind you.  Apparently, I’m expected to drop everything, listen to tirade after tirade of circular nonsense, one point of contention dependent on another, but when the first is debunked, the rest stand like a house of cards with the bottom level missing — something clearly impossible without zero gravity and some Elmer’s Glue.
     Hanging up, of course, meets with with an hour-long series of phone calls, complete with voice mails threatening violence, telling me how “childish” and “weak” I am… and that I’m a “disgrace.”

     I would submit that the more mature, and difficult, thing to do is to simply not give a damn what they think.
     Unfortunately, that sort of logic is lost on these two.

     The only “disgrace” is that they’re both family.
     Situations like that, you can’t win.  All you can do is walk away and hope for the best.  And somehow, I’m resigned to the fact that that’ll never happen.

The National Institute of Mental Health issued a press release on Monday (Feb 27th) about a study led by Eric Nestler, M.D., of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “Sustained hippocampal chromatin regulation in a mouse model of depression and antidepressant action” (Tsankova NM, Berton O, Renthal W, Kumar A, Neve R, Nestler EJ), shows that chronic stress and depression can cause a “molecular scar” in the brains of lab mice.

“The molecular scar induced by chronic stress in the hippocampus, and perhaps elsewhere in the brain, can’t be easily reversed,” said Nestler. “To really cure depression, we probably need to find new treatments that can remove the silencer molecules.”

While not only showing promise for future treatments of depression, it may also give some hints about about genetic predisposition to depression and antisocial behavior.

     There will always be a few certainties about life and the way any given set of people will react in matters of circumstance.

     The works of many students of Human Behaviour and Modern Psychology, however, can only begin to touch the very surface of what is the human mind. Theories about behaviour, as educated as they may be, as much as they may seem to encompass the widest array of human behaviour, simply don’t.
     Recently, I stood looking at one such student, drunk off his ever-living ass, lying on the concrete, helpless. Being the Samaritan that I tend to be, I addressed him, and offered him a ride home. Rather than answer, he spat upon my shoe and screamed, “Don’t call me Sean!” Many of you can only imagine the urge I felt to kick him senseless…
     So screw you, too, Sean. You’re immortalised here. *evil grin*

     Past that…

     What most of the Jungs and Freuds of the world tried to do was give Humanity a goal — the unreachable state of being “Normal.” But Humanity, being ennobled with the wondrous gift of “free will” which makes us each Individual despite generalisations, breaks down all Sociological Theory at the very level it was intended to represent.

     Many students of this “craft” would disagree. If that’s your opinion, stop reading this now.

     And if you’re still reading, then you either agree, or I’ve ired you so that you feel you must read on. And this, of course, is one of those great Facts about humanity. It’s the same thing that makes the reactionary listen to Howard Stern Radio Show.

     Being flawed never stopped the theories of the book-smart, university-educated Doctors and Therapists from becoming the fad of the latter half of the twentieth century.
     Past the nineteen sixties, as people began to be more open about their Feelings, Drug Use, and Sexuality, psychology and sociology began to boom. Everyone had a problem, you see, as the definition of “normal,” at that time, had been written in the late nineteenth century.
     But at the end of nineteen seventies, the studies had begun an overhaul of sorts. The students of the sixties had gone through the change of society along with everyone else. As they gained their Doctorate degrees and tenureships, they began the follied attempt to redefine the phrase, “Normal Behaviour,” each one with a shadow of themselves within.

     Needless to say, new definitions begat an increasingly chaotic sort of work. All of the Simple Human Truths began to be questioned. And as the rates of violence and atrocity increased throughout the world, proportionate to the ever-growing population, Criminology, a subset of Sociology, began to take hold.

     All of sudden, Sociologists and Criminologist began to dominate the public mindset. From television talk shows to local Community meetings, they were around, giving their two cents about the same society they had spurned in order to take up their study. They were experts, you see, and no one dared to refute them.
     Even bigger than the problem of their withdrawal from society, however, was the simple fact that none of them had anything more than “theory” to work from. And with the help of Mass Media giving marketable credibility to their every unproven whim, the two fields became extremely chaotic.
     Soon enough, it became impossible, even for students in the fields, to decide what was Fact and what was Theory. Being educated, and unwilling to admit that perhaps Humanity was flawed, they began to accept each Theory as fact. Even current Sociological and Psychological textbooks attest to this very principle.

     Much as the Priests and Preachers of religion explained inexplicable scientific principles as the work of a supreme deity, so the Psychologists and Sociologists of the world continued to write their theories and improvable postulates. They all push forward in a vain attempt to explain the flaws in human nature, but few, if any, have the cajones to actually say “Hey, humanity is self destructive, and we’re just as nutty as the average Joe.”

     Perhaps it will come as no surprise that in 2573 A.D., a new church will be formed, having the icons of Saint Sigmund and Saint Carl upon its Platinum-encrusted doors.
     And no one should dare utter the Holy Name of the One True God in vain…

     ”Forgive me, Doctor Shover, for I have sinned…”