Simply difficult

The boss isn't fair.  The pants are itchy.  The shirt doesn't fit  The egg yolks are yucky.

The patients are crabby.  The students are rowdy.  The world is not right.  Everything is off.

When things are not right we start close to home and begin the blaming game.

Some people never get any farther than that. 

Remember Mr. Wilson, or Mr. McOnion, or maybe you remember Lucy? All of them are famous for being crabby, but in some kind of cute way that made us smile. 

In real life, crabby people are less endearing and more annoying.  We want to fix whatever is wrong for them, or in them, or around them.  We want to pour milk down their throats and watch them turn into beings of light.

That means identifying the problem, but the problem is:  the problem is not the problem!

On children it can be as simple as being sick.  Adults are trickier.  A childhood problem that isn't solved becomes the provocation for one more problem after another and after years the roots and tendrils are all tangled up together.

Sometimes we give Lucy five cents and pretend it's all better -- and surprisingly enough that can work.  Other times we just keep fixing all those broken tendrils and the distraction is enough to make it bearable.

Figure out what the real problem is, then the problem IS the problem and life should be a lot simpler.

It's just that THAT is not so simple.