How Many Truly Know Our Family Member and Friends?

So many times when someone has done something horrible like murdering his wife or girlfriends, or even worse his whole family, do you see the TV reporters interviewing the murderer's family, friends and neighbors. Almost always, those interviewed are shocked, declaring he was a loving family man, always nice, he was friendly and they'd never have guessed he would do something like this.

I'm saying "he" only because it's easier, but sometimes the guilty part is female--but the answers are always the same.

Think carefully, have you ever had a friend or family member that you wondered about?

Maybe someone you know has a hair trigger for anger. The littlest things, a slight--imagined or real, something said the wrong way, or was meant as a tease--would cause this person to fly into a rage. People who are around the person probably have learned to tiptoe and be careful what they say. There are more of these people around than we care to admit.

When we're perfectly honest with ourselves, we all have triggers that can make us angry.

How about that person who is always down? Whether it's real or perceived, he or she thinks the world is falling apart, there really isn't anything or anyone who is good or worthwhile.

Everyday we run into people who, given the right circumstances, might end up killing someone.

What about road rage? Sometimes the people who seem the most together, turn into a demon when behind the wheel of a car.

The other day my son was driving his wife and me and my husband down a country road. The speed limit is 55, son was going 60. Anyone who has ever gotten a ticket for speeding on that road never goes over 60. Speeding tickets are really high in California. Once I was driving on that road around 9 in the morning, no one else was anywhere in sight, and I was doing 70. A CHP car came over a hill with it's lights flashing, since I was the only one around I knew he was after me. My ticket was nearly $300 dollars. I never go over 60 on that road.

A car came right up behind us and stayed on our tail. Son said the driver was gesturing in the window. Two car lengths ahead of us was another car also going 60. The tailgater pulled out, passed on a double yellow line and flipped us off as he drove by. He roared past the next car and kept on going. Merely five miles more and we spotted this guy. He'd turned off the road and was parked at the closed gate to the gravel pit. Now what on earth could have been so important to drive there so fast? This guy was so angry, no telling what he might have done.

My point in all this is we never know about people. The quiet next door neighbor might turn out to be a serial killer, who knows?

Marilyn