Recently I was in a situation that had me wondering . . . . are some people intimidated by joy? I am pretty sure that most of you are familiar with being intimidated by power or authority. Whether you have been the one intimidated or have seen it, I have faith you know what I’m talking about. There could be a situation where someone is not confident or is a little shy and a person with power or authority intimidates this person, even if they don’t mean to. But . . .hmmm . . . . looking up the definition of intimate this is what I am getting:
Verb — Frighten or overawe (someone), esp. in order to make them do what one wants.
And just to be clear for overawe:
Verb — Impress (someone) so much that they become silent or inhibited
Another definition of intimidate is: to make timid or fearful
So maybe intimidate is not even the word I am looking for. What I am looking for is “become hostile and angry and downright rude”. What word is that? It kind of reminds me of the situations where people are guilty of something so they get the same way. You can read my post on that by clicking here. Maybe that’s what it was. Maybe the person recognized the inappropriateness of her/his actions so s/he got rude. But could it be that some people just can’t handle the joy of others. As if their life is so miserable that they become combative and hostile? Have you ever been in that situation? Let me tell you, it is pretty odd.
As I said, I was recently in a situation where the person kind of flew off the handle. As I think about it I cannot understand the reason for this person acting as s/he did. I keep having to remember: it is a reflection of the person being hostile and not me. But I keep wondering. So that is why the thought occurred to me that some people just don’t like others to be happy or something. Some people don’t know how to act in the face of joy or they think that because they are miserable every one should be or no one else has the right to be happy? Or yeah, maybe they become fearful because they don’t know what joy is? Then because they are fearful/intimidated their reaction is belligerent and combative?
Wow. I know I am doing a lot of speculating here, but that is how baffled I am. In the past when this has happened when I have experienced people like this, I have been fortunate enough to be able to remove myself from having to encounter them, but this situation might not be that simple. And, of course you KNOW my immediate reaction is to pour MORE joy into the situation. I just want to saturate the entire space with it, but will that make it worse? That is why I am wondering if someone can be become hostile and angry and downright rude when faced with joy. And if they can will they just become more hostile and angry and downright rude and maybe even violent? Ekkkk! Can’t have that!
So . . . . what do you think? Do you think there are people out there who are intimated by joy?
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