Thanks, Mom

I'm becoming strongly convinced that my mum & dad raised me too well. At least, I figure most of my critical skills that I cherish have come from them. I think about myself a lot... I like to call it introspection. I figure out what's bothering me, why it's bothering me, where it comes from, and then figure out a way to either fix it or work around it. I've learned over the years that this is a skill that is not common. The other thing I've gotten from my upbringing (I presume) is, to borrow Obama's phrase "Yes I can!" This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it's let me be able to do most anything that I set my mind to, because I don't really believe "I can't"... Any instance of "I can't" that crops up in my life, I recognize as "I don't want to take the steps necessary to do it". Right now I can't do the uneven parallel bars, but I have no doubt that if I worked on it, took classes, and trained, that I could. "I can't understand economics and finance" is really: "the stuff irritates me and I just don't want to bother with learning about it." Really, I can't honestly think of something that I believe I couldn't do (with the exception of that just stated - is that a paradox?). As such, since I believe everything I can do is a learned skill, I have two big issues: A) stupid people irritate me to no end and B) I lack empathy when people have certain shortcomings.
Regarding A), I'm not talking about stupid as in low IQ. People who aren't smart don't bother me at all. It's people who say "I can't...." and therefore remain stupid that irritate me. I ran into that a LOT when I was teaching and I still run into it when dealing with dancing. There's not a lot of "Learning" that can't be achieved by just working on it.
Regarding B), I have a hard time when people are consistently late or insensitive or always "having issues" or etc, because, at least to me, time management, dealing with other people, and coping skills are all LEARNED skills. I have a really hard time feeling for people in certain situations because they really do have the power to "fix" their situation and just choose not to because they say they "can't".

So, thanks Mom & Dad... I'm really glad that "I can"... I don't know how you got it into me, but I'm glad you did. Now I just have to figure out how "I can" have more empathy... or maybe I should just say "f- it" and let everyone else drown in their own "I can't"-ness. hmmm....