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Can't we all just get along?

I know I have been as guilty as the next person, when it comes to having a chip on my shoulder at times. After all I'm sick, and I have that right. Don't I?

No, not really. I don't have a monopoly on having problems. We all have problems, but typically they're not any one individuals fault. They may be the fault of our entire society, or simply the luck of the draw, so why do we insist on taking our frustrations out on each other?

It started with Dave, from Delius Restaurant, when he blasted me, for posting a review, expressing how dissatisfied I was with the service and food, at his restaurant, two weeks ago. It seems he was more concerned that he got a bad review, than the fact that he had a dissatisfied customer.

Then the other day I got involved in a discussion on syngeneic transplants, on the Multiple Myeloma group I subscribe to. Rather then go into any great detail, I'll just say that the conversation transgressed into what cancer is, i.e. an abnormal cell, a mutated normal cell or a foreign cell.

Who cares what you call it? Cancer is something that you would have hoped your immune system would have recognized as not being good (foreign, abnormal, mutated, etc.). The fact that it wasn't is the problem. So lets not get caught up in semantics, when we're discussing our disease, and what may or may not be a viable treatment.

And this morning, my good friend Garry, one of the old gang, got all excited when another rider picked the pace up, a little more than Garry liked, as we went up a slight grade in Huntington Beach.

When we realized that Garry had fallen off the pace (not because he couldn't keep up), we slowed down, and waited for him to catch up, at which point he had a few choice words to one of the offending riders.

When I go for a bike ride, all I want to do is ride, and is one reason I stopped riding with Lightning Velo, and now most ride with Velo Allegro, or by myself. There were just way too many rules.

I have enough things on my mind without worrying about how fast I may be going, and I certainly didn't need to listen to any ensuing heated discussions.

So for a 2007 New Year's resolution let's all just try to lighten up, at least a little. We all have problems, and there's no need to inflict our own individual frustrations on our friends, co-workers or even customers.

In the immortal words of Rodney King,
Can't we all just get along?
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