I get confused....

I don't understand, and it is a constant irritant, why people seem to think that experiences that are in most instances quotidian and unexceptional are actually unique and surprising, in need of special explanation.

For instance, the heat we've been having lately must be due to global warming because I can't recall anything like it. These rain storms are so fearsome, what possibly can explain them? The world must be coming to an end judging by the extreme novelty of the events in the middle east.

But of course, none of these statements are necessarily true. I should admit that I seem to recall occassions very similar to what has been happening lately. There have been hotter summers, more fearsome storms, and violence and military aggression in the Arab world prior to this, I claim to remember. But even if I didn't claim any memory personally, my inclination is to believe such things have happened before. Other people's inclination seems to be that such things haven't happened before, why is that?

Is it that we all feel a need to proclaim our own experiences special? But what then of our prior experiences. Do those experiences consigned to memory get disregarded or honestly so indistinctly recalled that they become disenfranchised? How is that possible? I find pleasure in watching the return of events similar to those in the past. Heat waves seem to remind me pleasurably of hot summers of my youth (despite my current discomfiture.) Thunderstorms, the more violent the more exciting, bring me back to numerous moments of my past. To claim any experience as new and unique would rob me of this pleasure; yet other people seem eager to claim such a disconnection from their past.

Often this seems merely an excuse to find an object to worry over. But the newness of a situation doesn't provide me any special opportunity to worry; aren't there enough things to worry about? Why should I make the mental stretch to be concerned about today's weather?

I only go on about this at length because it has been hot lately, and rainy; and the weather has been a preoccupation of my coworkers to the extent that I have become very annoyed by their prating. Why do people enjoy discussing their unfavorable reactions to the weather? Beyond being simple social currency (there are plenty of other topics which serve the same purpose), is it that weather is so far beyond our control as to be a constant flea in our ear? Is my confusion simply my habit of being contrary to prevailing opinion and action?

I can't know, but it makes me want to slap everyone I meet.

~A