Frustration

This is the emotion (?) that I'm dealing with today. Frustration. Hmmm, is it really an emotion? a thought process? certainly a reaction.
So one way I deal with such things is to look up quotes about them. This helps me to consider various perspectives. These are some I found today

Society expects man to be a passive social animal who believes like the People of the Field in "Jurgen" that "to do what you always have done" and "what is expected of you" are the twin rules of life. This, of course, is not true. The wanton crucifixion of impulses, the unnecessary blocking and frustration of the drives and urges, are an evil that reflects itself in sophistication, ennui and boredom, dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and neurosis. Abraham Myerson

Indeed, my frustration comes from my perception that others expect me to 'do as always has been done' and to 'do what is expected of me' and not to question that expectation too much. It is what I percieve as the crucifixtion of what I see as vitally important - my passion, dedication to the task and my drives and urges to do the best job I know how that are causing my dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and yes...frustration. I don't think I'm at the point of neurosis yet.

In human life, art may arise from almost any activity, and once it does so, it is launched on a long road of exploration, invention, freedom to the limits of extravagance, interference to the point of frustration, finally discipline, controlling constant change and growth.

Susanne Langer

Am I too pretentious thinking that my nursing is a form of art? I certainly don't think so. Especially the art of reading a person in crisis and taking aim on that part of them that most needs my care and providing that care immediately. People who are grieving don't have time to specify their needs to you. They just know they hurt and they want you to make it all better. period. And with that art comes limits and limits will inevitably lead to frustration (where I am) so perhaps my next goal is discipline so that I can learn to control myself through the inevitable change and growth. I know I want to outlast this frustration and I know I DO NOT like limitations!

Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.

Kurt Vonnegut
US novelist (1922 - 2007)

And of course, I know dang well who'd be cleaning up that mess too! I think I like my husband's quote the best:

It's hard to fly like an eagle when you work with a bunch of turkeys.

Amen and A-MEN!
Response to my own quandry...

It takes in reality only one to make a quarrel. It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favour of vegetarianism while the wolf remains of a different opinion.

William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays (1919)
English author & Anglican prelate (1860 - 1954)

In other words...

Don't try to teach a pig to dance...you only waste your own time and annoy the pig.

Yeah, I knew that.