Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Too Big a Mouth for such Small Muscles


Ever notice how the smallest dogs are constantly yipping at everything? Things moving in the wind, people walking across the street and of course other dogs, especially those much bigger than them.

I think these same qualities of the little dogs are found in humans. Being just under 5' tall this is my excuse for always providing my opinion even when it isn't invited.

I like to believe that my opinion is superior to most (HA so typical... have you ever met a person who DOESN'T think their opinion trumps all others?). I also attest that I am the Robin Hood of words. I stand up for the little guy, the right, the deserving, the attacked, the emotionally abused, the innocent.

However, as right as I am... I am becoming concerned that I need to just shut the f*ck up. I came to this realization this week when reflecting on two separate experiences.

Two Sundays ago, I was leaving a church in South Side. The roads were treacherous, cars couldn't move and everyone was holding onto one another to avoid dying in a fall. An older gentlemen, on his way back to his car parked illegally in a one way street, was confronted by two punks in a car behind him. All of us, children included have just poured out of the church at 11:45 am when these "punks," started honking their horn, swearing at the man, threatening to call the cops on him, etc. Annoyed by their disregard of the little virgin ears all around and accustomed to telling people what to do (I'm a teacher..), I told the boys, "Stop swearing." At this of course, I became the victim of the verbal assault as they started telling me to F the F and F this and F that and F F F F. (Fill in the Fs with the actual swear word). Frustrated I just walked away. Should have kept my mouth shut, huh?

This past Monday, I was waiting for the bus downtown pretty late in the evening (and by late I mean 7). Tired and cold, I and several other people waited for the busses to return from their smoke break for half an hour. A man, who happens to be cross-eyed, was standing in the alley watching for his bus to come (I'm going to go off a limb here but I bet he doesn't have 20/20 vision). There was no sign of traffic being so late in the evening and his vision was sufficient enough to be able to determine at what point a car was heading straight for him. In other words, this man was hurting NOTHING. Another man, standing on the sidewalk, shouted to the older gentleman standing on the alley, "Get off the f*cking road! We're all waiting for our busses and you don't see us standing on the road!" Annoyed by the man who was just instigating, I said aloud, "He's not hurting anyone. Didn't we all learn in kindygarden that if their not hurting someone, let 'em alone." I meant for this just to make myself feel better and not be heard by anyone (I know you're thinking why did you say it out loud then... I don't know the answer to that) but of course a guy standing next to me took this as an opportunity to converse with me. Should have kept my mouth shut.

One day, I'm going to get shot and these muscles sure ain't big enough to handle that sh*t.

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