There’s no telling why we find
certain things intolerable. They just are. For me, one of these
irritating things is the sound that Styrofoam makes when it squeaks against
something – worse than nails on a chalkboard, because it happens so much more
often. And another thing about Styrofoam – what the heck is it? A bunch of
chemicals with unpronounceable names, likely. It takes up a huge amount of
space in trash cans, doesn’t ever really decompose by itself, and the only way
to safely get rid of it is by burning. And then there are the little snowflakes
of residue left behind.
Styrofoam
is convenient, though. And that’s probably why gas stations, fast-food places
and restaurants use containers made out of the stuff for drink cups and hauling
leftovers. And while there’s nothing that can be done about it(therefore no
point to complaining), all those fast-food places look the same. And taste the
same. There’s no character to most of them. And so it’s the same thing over and
over across America, everyone shops at Dollar General, Wal-Mart or Target
because they’re familiar, and eats at the same Burger Kings and Pizza Huts. The
little out-of-the-way independent stores that Steinbeck stopped at in his
journey are mostly gone. Maybe they were already gone by that time, I don’t
know. But now, for most things, if the
franchise has only three or four locations, that’s about as separate from
corporate red tape and bureaucracy as it’s going to get. There are exceptions –
some weekly newspapers are still hanging on, for example. And more eastern
Oklahoma examples can be found in the bank in Westville, a grocery store in
Beggs, or the movie theater in Okmulgee, besides other places in other towns.
And there will always be a small spot left for individual restaurants –
especially drive-ins and barbeque joints. But in general, there’s an overwhelming
sameness to the American landscape, which is frustrating.
The
extreme dependence on cars being the primary mode of transportation could be
linked to this, perhaps. And yes, they are about the most efficient way to get
from Point A to Point B. It’s the lack of any other options that becomes the
problem. If an elderly person or someone with visual problems, for example,
cannot drive, then they are kind of left to the mercy of others, which can be
an uncomfortable place to be, human pride being what it is and not knowing who
the neighbors are and all. They feel like a burden, and so keep to themselves,
not fulfilling a role in their community.
Switching
back to a more personal irritation, my stress level launches through the roof
whenever anything involving money has to be done, outside of bargain-hunting.
Financial-aid details, for example. I’m very grateful that it’s been there to
take care of most of the costs, but at the same time, there is almost nothing
that wrecks my composure quite like a day of working out what documents need to
go where, and things like that. Part of this could be because I don’t enjoy
working with numbers, or because immediate deadlines don’t allow time to
process the steps necessary to complete the task. And I just don’t really understand
how money works, taxes and things. Since we didn’t have much growing up, I
couldn’t learn by observation about how to think about and interact with money
when there is some. That’s not the type of learning that can be picked up from
reading, either. I’ll learn it all at some point.
There
are more things which raise my hackles, of course. That’s part of the flaws
that make us human. But I’ll wrap this up, because I’m running out of page
space here. Besides, it takes a lot of energy to contain the flood of Things
That Irritate Wesley, if that subject has to come up, and even more to figure
out which topics are safe enough to use in an essay like this. Then there’s
exactly how to word each sentence, etc. But that’s why I’m an English major,
words and language are what I can work with best.
