Pet Peeves

 

I think I might start a list of pet peeves. I’m sure I can come up with a very long list and add to it often. After all, when someone introduces a topic of conversation with, “What is your pet peeve?” my answer is always, “I have a whole menagerie of pet peeves.” Sadly, it’s true. I guess I’m more of a curmudgeon than I like to admit.

The idea came to me after I was telling my husband, John, about an incident that typified a pet peeve. I won’t describe it here. The person involved might recognize him/herself. That’s the advantage of a list of pet peeves. You can write them down, get them off your chest, but you don’t necessarily have to bore someone else with your complaining or insult the person responsible for this peeve.

There are probably different categories of peeves. The annoying things your friends and loved ones do. The irritations you encounter at work. There are probably pages to be filled with peeves concerning transportation, business and commerce and, God help us, politics. What makes a peeve a pet peeve? Are there stray peeves? Feral peeves?

I’ve seen other people post their pet peeves on Facebook and it just makes them seem, well, peevish.

Why not a list? I already write down all my prayers and petitions. It’s not exactly a list, because a lot of commentary goes with it. Lists are usually bullet points, right? That said, I suspect when I start listing my pet peeves, there will be copious commentary. All the more reason to put that in a list, rather than yammer on to someone else.

Recently, I counseled someone who’s going through a rough time with health issues to start a list of blessings. That is certainly not a new idea. Some years ago, there was a book called 14,000 Things to be Happy About, by Barbara Ann Kipper. Other books have been written on the same subject.

The purpose of writing down your blessings, I think, is that it forces you to look for blessings, or things for which to be thankful. In Philippians 4:6, Paul writes, “Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.” I’ve thought about that verse so many times in the recent months, and I concluded that was the point of “with thanksgiving.” If you are looking for things to be thankful for, if you are expecting to find them, I believe your odds of finding them go way up. Selection bias (or Baaden-Meinhof phenomenon) is what they call it.

Of course, that calls into question the idea of listing negative things, those peeves. Would that make me look for peeves more diligently?

Well. That’s food for thought. Right now, I’m going to go eat lunch. I’ll heat up leftover Brussels sprouts in the microwave.