I'm not angry any more

I've noticed lately that the red mist rarely descends. No rage on the road, at work, at home - anywhere, in fact. I find little things begin to vex me and then I think "Nah, why bother?" So, for instance, the other day I was seeking out a chunk of black pudding from the fridge to have for my breakfast - and a very fine breakfast black pudding is, too - and my tetchiness rating began to shoot up because I couldn't find the said delicacy. I became convinced that the black pudding had been discarded and was just on the point of effing and blinding when I looked in the salad drawer of the fridge. There, still in its bag from the butchers, was my decidedly non-salady breakfast. Yum yum.

Similarly, at the weekend I was on my bike going out for a leisurely Sunday morning ride when some lagered-up tosser and his mate emerged from a Bideford pub for a smoke. The lagered-up tosser then began shouting "Tally Ho" and other inanities at me (I was the only person around, aside from his smoking buddy). The LUT thought this was hilarious and I was on the point of flicking the Vs at him and scuttling off when good sense kicked in. It occurred to me he might genuinely have thought he was being encouraging and he was, after all, causing me no harm - people who offend your personal dignity really aren't causing you harm. So I just carried on, wind in my hair and a smile on my face. And come to think of it, it's an assumption on my part that he was lagered-up.

Sometimes I fear I may just be apathetic. Obviously getting agitated about mislaid black pudding is a ridiculous state of affairs, but my encounter with the man from the pub might be considered to be an example of bad manners from him. Perhaps a friendly talking-to explaining how he should show consideration for other people would effect a change in his behaviour making him a delight to have around. But then, as I said earlier, I think "Nah, why bother."

In my defence, I would observe that if more people were apathetic there probably would be less trouble in the world. People get het up about something and then they won't rest until they've done something about it. That leads to all sorts of agitation and bonkers behaviour like the excitable pastor from America who decided he was going to burn the Koran. Understandably this got people all riled up on all sides of the argument and the next thing the world is looking a lot less peaceful. A bit more apathy all round and none of it would have happened. Apathetes of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your...well, I'm not sure really...your something or others. Incidentally, I am aware that if everyone was apathetic then we wouldn't have light bulbs, sticking plasters, black pudding and other useful things. So maybe I'm calling for a form of rational apathy which stops people from getting too angry.

Anyway, unsurprisingly perhaps, I am going off to sit and think about these things for a while. Do you think there is such a word as apathete? Perhaps best not to worry about it too much.