Mike Paschall . com

Another entry for the project. -MDP-

“Like one who grabs a wild dog by the ears, so is the person passing by who becomes furious over a quarrel not his own.”  Proverbs 26:17, NET

Golf courses and airports are good places to find out what is inside of a person.  Mastery of both is next to impossible.  As enjoyable as golf is to millions of people, it is also gives constant feedback that there is room for improvement and perfection is fleeting.  I’ve seen the most gentle of personalities, go “apeshit” over the loss of a stroke because of a bad shot.  Well, ok, maybe that was me, but you get the point.  Managing one’s composure is a very significant part of the game.  The pros have learned how to walk away from disaster and be “all there” for the next shot.  Taming the head might be more important than grooving the swing.

Airports are also a hotbed of frustration because just getting to your gate in order to board a plane is a lot of work.  Airline marketing tactics wax hard to present some assurance that flying is easy.   That would be silly-talk right there!  Delays and cancellations are a fairly common occurrence.  It’s all about chain reactions.  A bad weather day in Dallas can disrupt the entire nation’s travel patterns.  Fog in Atlanta is causing heartburn in San Francisco.  A blizzard in Minneapolis is ruining vacation plans to Jamaica.  I suspect that there is lots of money to be made inside of airport drinking holes.  People inside of airports are tightly wound with very short fuses.

Patti and I recently spent 26 hours in the DFW airport waiting to take a 25-minute flight to Waco.  Delay after delay, cancellation after cancellation, we sat in amazement that we were so close, but yet so far.  You have to stay chilled.  Throughout various episodes of boarding and de-boarding, we watched the rising tide of frustration swell in various individuals.  The desk agents are only the messengers, but you’d think that they had personally sabotaged the whole affair.   Even though Granny is ready to bust open a can of whupass on someone because Sheba, her Dramamine induced Pomeranian is hyperventilating in it’s case, it doesn’t do anyone any good to take up her offense while she’s exploding on the gate agent.  Granny will settle soon enough, but there is always someone around that is more than happy to incite their own passion to join the fray.

Wisdom suggests that this is not a good idea.  Don’t think domesticated pet here.  Think about the serious consequences of grabbing a wild dog (by the ears).  Yep, you are going to get yourself bitten… maybe even mauled.   Most conflict is due to unbridled passion and limited understanding.  You’d best keep the cuckoo in the clock friend.  The whole world is not plotting for your personal inconvenience.

In The Pages

Can you stay out of another person’s quarrel?  When tension levels rise in public, how do you react?  Can you keep quiet or do you have to vent?