Seven stories of rage and regret

Readers share recent times when an explosion led to embarrassment.

The Last month, we asked readers to share stories of a recent case where they or a loved one burst out in anger – and then regretted it. We received nearly 500 responses, most of which linked their outbursts to high-profile stressors such as the pandemic, divisive politics and the effects of climate change.

Their stories reminded us of Nina Simone's song "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" when she said, "Baby, do you understand me now if sometimes you see I'm crazy? Don't you know that no one alive can still be an angel? When everything goes wrong, you see evil. »

In these seven stories, people can act in ways that seem to be wrong. More heartening, however, is how often the shock of their outbursts pushes them into a place of introspection and empathy.

"My friends had the nerve to continue to be cheerful"

After several months of confinement in England, my wife and I were finally able to visit our close friends in London. My wife and I arrived on time for our coffee date, but our friends arrived 10 minutes late. This annoyed me deeply. They had suggested the time and place, and I had cut short my run to accommodate them. Wasn't that reckless?

I said something passive-aggressive, like, "I'm so glad you made it!" They did not respond or apologize for being late. It filled me with an incandescent rage. How dare they? My friends had the nerve to keep being cheerful the whole time we spent together.

Later I rehash the incident with my wife . She didn't think it was a big deal, but I burst into tears.

"I don't want to be friends with them anymore!" I said, while my wife looked at me, bewildered. There I was, a 32-year-old woman sobbing into her wife's chest because our dear friends were late for coffee. "Do you want us to end our friendship because of this?" she asked softly. "Yes!" I cried. My wife, God bless her, had the conscience to let me bawl. Later, we laughed at my temporary madness. Prolonged lockdown isolation had made me prickly, irritable, and socially snappy. I had forgotten how to be with people. — Amary Wiggin

'I don't think this is a funny story'

This summer my wife and I went to see “Top Gun: Maverick” at the cinema, our first cinema outing since the start of the pandemic. A group of teenagers seated a row ahead of us continued to use their cell phones.

As we approached the climactic final sequence, I saw a phone come up for a selfie. When the flash went off, I lost it. I walked down their row, grabbed the arm of the guy who took the selfie, and swore in his face saying I've waited 30 years to see this sequel. I stormed back to my seat. The phones didn't come out anymore.

The first few times I told my friends and family about the incident, I told it like a Get style -Off-My-Lawn comedy, highlighting how, before confronting them, I threw aside the oversized scarf we bring to the movies (because my legs are cold!) on a walk about a week later my wife suggested a different take. "I don't think it's a funny story," she said. “These children must have been terrified. And I've never, ever seen you do anything like that. It changed the goal. What gave me the right to treat another person like that, even for a brief moment? I'm not telling the story anymore. When I think about it, I just remember their shocked faces and silent nods in the blue light of the movie screen and I'm ashamed. — David Lock

'Without thinking I spun my van around'

After canceling Roe v. Wade, I was driving home listening to a man from the Ohio advocacy group Right to Life speak on NPR. I was heartbroken over the Supreme Court decision; the man on the radio only exacerbated my despair.

As I was crossing a roundabout, an old...