The Cat in the Hat: The New, Shiny, Triggering Object

“No I do not like it, not one little bit.” – The fish from Dr. Seuss’s children book, The Cat in the Hat

Sometimes a cat in a hat is just a cat in a hat.

Yes, I understand that this might not fit into everyone’s little narrative statement, but it is true. I am troubled by the hypersensitivity that is causing people to over-analyze, over-react and even become anxious and depressed over perceived discriminatory objects. Or by being scared, worried or upset over what someone else might be going to do, like the children's red fish from the "The Cat in the Hat" story.

Are we capable of stopping ourselves from doing this? I believe we are. I always try to remind myself that I cannot control what other people say or do. That’s right, I don’t have that superpower. Nor do I want it, or want others to have it. That is one of the great tenets of the United States Constitution under the 1st Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech. You just can’t enforce laws that work at “prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech”.

This post would be an example. I guarantee that there are people out there that will read this, disagree with this, and get all butt-hurt by this post. That’s fine with me. If you want to give your power to be happy to me, the writer of this post, or to some other idiot waving a flag you don’t like, or your child reading a book you find offensive or watching someone else eating something not “produced” the way you believe to be proper, go for it.

But there might be another way to help so you don’t forfeit your mental health in your quest to make everyone agree with your opinion and viewpoint.

Try to limit your interactions with those things that make your heart race with excited agitation, your skin break out in an anxious sweat and your body start to tremble with disgust. Do what you do when you hear a song on the radio you might not like, a Milli Vanilli song for an example from my taste in music: turn the radio dial to the off position, choose another radio station or temporarily turn down the volume.

Now I want to assure you that this is in no way an effort to be naïve about critical social issues, it is just a way to build emotional and cognitive buffers so you do not suffer from the ignorance and insensitivity of some people. 

And then and only then, it might be easier to believe that a cat in a hat is just that.