Annoyed at the aisle

A woman in a Jeddah supermarket picks up the washing powder she has bought for years, weighs it in her hand, and frowns. The pack is lighter. The price on the shelf edge is not.

Her irritation is fair. The question worth asking is what kind of thing she is irritated by.

Some annoyances are problems. A problem can be solved, though rarely for free. She could try the brand on the shelf below, buy the large bag and decant it at home, drive to the wholesale market at the weekend. Each costs her something: money, effort, the risk that her whites come out grey. If she is willing to pay one of those prices, the annoyance ends, and the irritation was useful, because it got her moving.

Other annoyances are situations. If every pack on the aisle has quietly shrunk, and she is not going to change how she does her laundry, then nothing she does at the shelf will make it go away. That is not a problem waiting for a solution. It is just the shape of the aisle this year.

Being cross about a situation is something she chooses, not something that happens to her. If the frown helps, it is hers to keep. If it does not, it is only extra weight she carries home beside the lighter pack.

The pack weighs what it weighs. The annoyance is a story about what it should have weighed, and the story is the one thing in the aisle she is free to change.