Photo by Jessica Da Rosa on Unsplash

Let me bring you up to speed. It was a nice family gathering until it wasn’t, and how many people have experienced one of those?

Everything was going well, until a person became angry at something that was said, and then everyone had to chime in with their opinions.

Come sit with me as I try to explain a scene from a shitshow.

In front of us, you see a family in its full raging glory, arguing and yelling at one another. Their voices continue to rise, because they think the louder they are the more someone will listen.

Yet, that is counter intuitive, because no one is actually listening to anyone. They hear words and the words continue to set them off, but no one is trying to decipher the meaning behind them. How can they listen when they are so intent on proving they are right?

No one is willing to stop fighting and try to understand why this is all happening. A variation of condescending tones are being expressed, but it’s hard to construe any real meaning. Only arguing and yelling, yet nothing is being accomplished.

So, sit back and watch as everyone gets worked up, until this fight ends in a dramatic climax of fuck you’s that come blasting in from all sides.

Yet, once it is over, is it really over?

Not at all, because each party member will go their separate ways only to replay this fight again and again, growing angrier each time.

You see, fights just don’t last while they are happening, they can last for eternity in one’s mind. They will forever be readily available for you to experience all over again. The events will play out differently each time as you defend your behavior to make yourself out to be the injured party.

So, the shitshow will continue as you relive the fight that no one really won.

— Nicole Barden 8/3/2021

Originally published in Blue Insights on Medium