When I Have Nothing...

A friend sent me an e-mail today asking for the "morning blog" (Today's picture is courtesy of them).

Was going to ask you all what you want me to do when I have no medical stuff to tell you. Today, I will give you an excerpt from a book idea I have from the viewpoint of an Uncle talking to kids who are and aren't related by blood. I'm open to any suggestions of what to post on "non-medical info" days.

Chapter 4: I WISH I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN INTO A FIGHT IN HIGH SCHOOL

Not really, but it made you wonder what this chapter was all about, didn’t it? I have to tell you the truth; I have said that in the past and am not sure if I may never say it again.

There were lots of opportunities to get into fights and I got away from them. A senior did rough me up once when I was a sophomore in high school. In my mind, the senior was doing an injustice to a sophomore who was learning disabled and I questioned the senior why he was doing that. You’ve heard the saying; "There’s no such thing as a stupid question." I’m here to tell you that, "Yes, there is," and the one I asked the senior was a good example of one. His explanation came in the form of getting shoved into the supply closet and getting punched by him for what seemed like 3 or 4 hours (in reality. It was most likely 5 minutes).

Another time, I was in a class setting with a group of people including one guy I just didn’t like. We traded some witty repartee and I knew I was going to take him down with my brilliance. That was until he countered with a sucker punch to my mouth and split my lip. I walked away.
I guess my favorite was the time I was a senior and a sophomore wanted to fight me. I am sure there is something I said or did that annoyed him about me. We passed by each other every day in the hall and he never failed to give notice of his intentions. He equally annoyed me, and I vented by creating scenarios about him in my typing class when I had free time and we were free to practice our typing as we wished. I was probably about 2-3 weeks of getting into my first fight in school ever (about 5 weeks from graduation and carrying a 3.4 GPA), when he backed off. I attributed to him moving on to better challenges until I asked a mutual friend of his and mine about the "cease fire."

My friend told me, "I told him to leave you alone."

I replied, "I can take care of him by myself OK."

The friend replied, "No, you don’t get it. I told him to leave you alone because I told him you could take care of him pretty easily. There is no question in my mind you would win. Face it man, you are bigger and stronger than he is. It wouldn’t be pretty."

"Yeah, but," I said, "I could graduate knowing I beat a kid up!"

"No man, you do that and you will mess up being able to graduate, with a suspension and all. Don’t do it. Enjoy the legend that I created for you!"

Wow, that guy thought there was a legend quality about me. I am not egotistical enough to believe that I have been or ever will be a legend. What I do like is knowing that by holding it in when it would have been easy to let it all hang out, I appeared stronger in other people’s eyes.
I don’t know if I would have been suspended had I engaged the sophomore in a fight. I don’t know if I would have had to take summer school classes in a summer when I needed to work and make as much money as possible to pay for college. I do know that I wasn’t suspended and I do know I made some money that summer. That was only one potential situation and had there been others, it might have established a pattern of behavior for me that would have led to a different life experience for me.

If all that resulted from a fight in school was a bloody nose or black eye that would eventually heal, I don’t know how worked up people would get about it. Our animal instincts are all about establishing territory and supremacy. It’s natural.

I think people get worked up about fighting because as humans, it isn’t natural. We have the additional asset of a brain that works better than the other members that make up our animal family. We know how to turn the switch on and off. Sometimes we don’t know when.

Uncles can antagonize you and make you "fighting mad." Next time an uncle does that to you, show him a light switch and ask him if he knows how it works. - Greg Frazee, 2006