WHY ARE SOME PEOPLE MEAN - CRUEL - OR NASTY?

 At some point in one's life, we realize people know what they're doing. They have a purpose or a reason for how they act toward others. The woman who has a smile on her face might be crying inside, but she wants to greet you with a happy face.

There's another woman who most often has tears in her eyes, though the long woeful stories she tells don't seem to warrant the tears.

Then there's the man who literally searches for a mistake so he can yell at someone about it. He'll disrupt the whole restaurant because his waitress forgot to bring him another glass of water.

And this morning there was the man who threw his book at the librarian. He'd lost his library card. The librarian told him she could give him a replacement card and it would cost one dollar.

He didn't say a word to her. He just threw the book he wanted to borrow. Threw it at her. Then he scooted out of the library real quick.

Spiteful. Malicious. Nasty. Mean. Cruel. All of those words fit him.

The woman with the nice smile has found that when she smiles, others smile back, and she prefers that sort of exchange.

The tearful woman wants sympathy.

Both of the men are mean men. They're miserable inside themselves and they want to make others miserable.

They know what they're doing.

They both seize every opportunity to try to ruin someone's day.

That's their intention.

It's their way of having fun.

They gloat about it, pleased with themselves.

But they don't realize they're just one of many, classified 'one of those' by the people they confront.

Just another mean person, soon forgotten.

Anyone who works with the public knows there will be at least one mean person to deal with in a day. It's part of the job.

And what those mean people don't know is how they're talked about and ridiculed.

The victims of their temper tantrums don't sit down and cry. In fact, before too long a whole lot of people will be laughing about the incident, at the mean person's expense.

Mean people want to ruin our day.

But we don't let them.

In fact, we all feel just a moment of pity for him. Imagine going through life hoping to ruin someone's day.

How miserable it must be to be him.

(Or her. )