anger

Ever get so angry that you lose your cool? I got angry enough that I yelled at someone over the phone and hung up on him this morning. Grrr...such a bad mood. I was vibrating with fury, and kind of stunned at myself for being so angry.

It wasn't a good feeling, and yet, at the same time, I thought it was totally justified.

I was angry because yesterday, I had participated in a speech-debate club (toastmasters), and it's a really nice forum to practice, and get confident with public speaking. It was a great meeting, until the end. When this "old coot", who has always been a smart but less than tactful person (and I used to work with him), got up, and basically attacked two of the presenters. He thought he was giving constructive criticism, but it was really mean, and I think destructive. He went on a rant about powerpoint and how it wasn't a good tool (which, I agree, it is overused, but I thought totally ok in this presentation because it was a visual one).

I was too stunned to say much afterwards, other people gave him a talking to. He wanted a favor from me to review something he'd written -- a farcical match.com series of posts. I gotta admit, the writing was funny, but I wasn't in the mood to help. He left messages, and then called me this morning. I almost didn't take the call, but then, I decided to, and boy did I chew him out. I told him that he was mean-spirited, that his critique was unhelpful, and that just because he was older (i.e. senior citizen) didn't give him the right to act that way. I didn't let him explain, because quite frankly, I was angry, and I didn't want to hear it. So I hung up on him.

It's funny, it didn't happen to me -- I wasn't the one being criticized, and in fact those people have written it off and aren't that upset. But I was upset on their behalf. It just soured the whole experience for me. And I'm disappointed that someone I know would act that way. I really lost my respect for him. And that's sad.