Part of the coping process is that you have to deal with the ignorant and irritating things that people say and do, and not let it get to you. I was walking down the street the other day listening to two rude women having a conversation very loudly about Christmas. One of the women went on and on about how the worst situation that she could imagine was that they didn't have any batteries on Christmas morning. This usually would have elicited a response in my head about how practical she was, but since my mother died two days after Christmas, my perspective has somewhat (nee completely) changed. It wouldn't have been so bad if the woman didn't continue her rant for a whole block, going on and on. Then she proceeded to say that she would rather be dead than not have batteries on Christmas. Being a big fan of the overdramatic use of hyperbole in my general conversation, I thought it was pretty funny, but at the same time I was thinking about my mother and how this woman really needed a dose of reality and perspective.
Part of the coping process is that you can't let people like this anonymous woman get to you. You could be proverbially dying of grief on the inside, but you can't just march up to people and yell at them for being idiots about batteries on Christmas, no matter how much you might want to. You have to remember that everyone looks at life through their own window, and that no one, not even the people who know you best, really know what you are going through. Nor can they, so you can't blame them either. Coping is extremely difficult but it is a very personal process.
