I soak up emotions like a sponge.  Apparently that’s called empathy.  I understand most people, and can explain 99% of all human behavior.  I understand why people act how they do, what their motivations are, and I can anticipate what their previous actions were leading up to said behavior as well as what behavior would follow. Generally, that’s how I’m able to communicate well with people.  Generally, that’s how I’ve accommodated unpredictable behavior, how I’ve negotiating escalated issues, how I’ve generally had any outcome I’ve chosen out of a situation. Generally. It’s those people that I don’t GET who alarm me.  Sometimes, I don’t even notice the red flags until they become the flames lapping out the windows, like my life engulfed in the flames of someone who I haven’t understood or felt.   It’s a little jarring.  A little discomforting, when I’ve judged someone’s behavior incorrectly. A little frightening. There’s a woman who calls me at work that I referred to as “psycho” today.  She’s heartless, and she’s vile, she’s rude, mean, and just plain evil.  I understand that she’s afraid, freaked out, and has a very, very sick little boy. I get that. I can understand how she would be super emotional and/ or demanding of our attention.  But her behavior is outside of that which we’d label socially acceptable.  It’s outside that which we’d guess was appropriate, and her words are piercing and abrasive, shouted at me with the sugar sweet voice of Mommy Dearest.  However, I understand her, and know exactly what to say to her.  I still think she’s wretched, and going straight to hell for some of the things that come out of her mouth (not to say I believe in hell, that’s another blog entirely), but I GET her. It’s those people who I cannot predict, cannot GET that catch me off guard.  You think you know someone, think they are one person, when they blow your entire stability out of the water with something that is completely uncharacteristic of them. Those are the people I wonder about.  Those are the people who strike fear into my heart like Hannibal Lector struck fear in the heart of the Cherise.  My spine turns to icicles when I realize that I’ve pegged someone wrong altogether.

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