And I've had a lot of it lately - both with cause (drama that falls in my lap) and without cause ("free-floating anxiety"). I have a hereditary anxiety disorder that can, at times, make it very hard to be calm and detached. Fortunately, I am clinically medicated for this, though it only makes it easier to manage - it doesn't actually get rid of the anxiety itself. The rest of my treatment comes from my own choices and actions - I try to practice mental discipline and thought exercises to avoid anxiety from flaring up, and smothering anxiety that does arise.

I received a good reminder today that I can't always tell by myself whether my judgment is adequately calm and grounded. As such, I frequently accept reality checks from my friends, many of which have a saintly patience for which I am grateful. I only hope that I have plenty of other life moments where I am grounded in such a way that is helpful to other people.

Paradoxically, this makes me anti-drama while being pathologically unable to permanently avoid it. As a matter of moderation, I think we can all afford small doses of drama in our lives, so that we can exercise being human beings. Of course too much drama is bad. At the same time, absolute zero drama is rather like absolute zero temperature in degrees kelvin - not technically possible to perfectly achieve in nature. Sometimes we create drama, or drama comes our direction - neither is entirely avoidable. And practice will never make perfect. But practice will make better, and I believe it's at least as important to practice a patience in life as it is to be less of a drama queen.