Irascibles

La Voz de Galicia – January 10, 2025 →

Cristina PatoThere are people who simply have the ability to make you feel bad. People for whom, for whatever reason, everything is wrong, everything is negative, everything is an unsolvable problem. People who waste no time starting an argument or finding conflict where there is none. And even though one tries to understand the reasons behind why that person behaves that way in that moment (“maybe they’re having a bad day,” “maybe they’re not feeling well,” “maybe they’re dealing with a personal issue”), in the end, all I can do is distance myself from them. I retreat into my little world, where turning my back on hostility is the only way I know how to exist, and I wonder what leads us to be one way or another, what sets us on one of these two ways of being.

I know there are as many types of people as there are people in the world, and that dividing them into two opposing extremes makes no sense. But either I’m more sensitive than I used to be, or this type of person—the one who sees everything as wrong, the one who distrusts others without reason, the one who doesn’t stop criticizing—is more present than ever. And then I reflect on whether we’ve all been like that at some point in our lives, and I answer myself: probably, yes (“let the one who is without sin cast the first stone”).

Today, irascibility is spreading everywhere: in the written media, in political debates, in entertainment programs, on social networks… But if we still have the ability to choose, I choose the path of those who haven’t lost hope in humanity, of those who haven’t let the darkness take over. And if I can, I cling to it with all my strength because life is far too short to be angry all the time.

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