The Only Exception.

You might be somewhat familiar with this song, whether you have heard the original somewhere, or heard it performed on the X Factor a couple of nights ago (good on you Jayden! :D ) - but if you aren't, the essential idea is that generally, the singer of the song isn't that into love, but the person she's singing about is the only exception.

I think these days, you can sometimes see a bit of a reversal of that. When you talk about loving everybody, being nice to people, they're like - yeah, of course, that's fantastic, etc.
But then there's that one person. Their only exception to the rule. And they just hate them. They hate them to a ridiculous amount. Sometimes, it's pretty much loathing. And I've got some good friends who would be in this basket.

So what, you're thinking, you can't be angry at anybody? You can't get annoyed, peeved, agitated? Of course you can. I do. Not angry that often, but I get annoyed not infrequently. But don't hate people. And don't let anger consume you, either. Both of these things can be a poison to you, fill you up. Being filled with hate, filled with anger - it's not pretty. Because the thing is, the more attention you give something, the more it grows. And emotions tend to love themselves. You have a little bit of hate, give it a little bit of attention - if you don't watch out, that can grow into a lot of hate if it's not checked. Same with anger.

And you might think you've got it under control. It's just a little thing. You never even really think about it.
Well, perhaps not. But you darn well know it's there. You know exactly where it is, and you get it out to have another look just when you want it.

Don't let emotions like hate or anger consume or control your life. Let them go. If a person is really that bad that they deserve it - and often, if we really think about it, that's not the case - then forget about them. Ignore them. But don't hate them.

If you can manage to get through life without hating anyone, I think you're doing pretty well. Or you're just a bit of a wallflower, so you don't really get into it enough to hate anyone. Knowing me, I'm probably a bit of Column A, a bit of Column B at the moment. But, you know, in my mind, I've never had any reason to hate anyone. Or ignore or forget them, for that matter. Not saying I'm perfect. I've just been fortunate so far.