From What I Hate Most to What I Hate Most

1. Cigarette smoking, if it’s anywhere near me. I am aware that nicotine is a strong addiction.
2. Men doused in cheap cologne. I have never experienced this issue with woman. It seems to be a European male thing (obviously not all men).
3. People who lie (not including white lies to prevent bad feelings or pain).
4. When a business fails to deliver a service and then does not own their mistake and/or compensate adequately.
5. When someone knows they did something wrong, however, refuses to apologize.
6. Cheaters. Not the same as liars.
7. People who do something egregious and then refuse to own the consequences.
8. Vanity.
9. When people use religion as a reason to strip away the rights of others.
10. People who abuse children in any way. People who parent children, but put themselves first. People who murder children. I like to think I can forgive anything, but, I’m not sure I can forgive murdering a child.

Honorable mention: when people do not pick up their dog’s poop or when they throw trash on the ground, when people talk about money incessantly, and certain political leaders.

I could have kept going.

The Good News

I’ve sort of worked all of this hate out of my system over the last five years; pretty much since I arrived in Portugal. Yes, I still get angry, frustrated, and pissed off, but not nearly as often and for shorter periods of time.

Smoking Gets Its Own Heading

I have a couple of friends who smoke cigarettes. I hope they don’t get angry with me when they read this. I love them; because of my affection, I’m willing to deal with the smoke — just being honest here. I am absolutely certain there are things about me that annoy them. There are degrees of hate (like most things in life); this is the kind of hate that I feel because I know what smoking does to one’s health — I watched my mother die from lung cancer. She smoked days before she died, knowing it was killing her. Hard for me to wrap my head around that.

I’m fairly certain we all have a “hate” list. Putting it in writing helps to keep things in perspective. My “love” list is a lot longer.