Have you ever had a moment when you’ve said something you either wished you hadn’t said or later wanted to change? No matter how old we become, many of us will never learn from these mistakes. I made one of these mistakes two days ago, and I had to make amends before my words became a wild beast.
It happened rather innocently. I was talking with an acquaintance when out of my mouth came a simple statement about someone we both knew, a someone who wasn’t in the room.
How do you like working with him? He has so much energy that I’ve had to throw water in his face to cool him down.
My statement wasn’t meant to be hurtful. It came from a jocular place, and in my mind I had the idea that this individual would have approved; that he would have laughed along with those I said it too.
I left this acquaintance ruminating. I went over scenarios where my “wet” friend wasn’t too happy about what I had said. I happened to like him after all. The thought that he might take it the wrong way made me fearful. I didn’t want to loose his friendship. I certainly didn’t want to loose his respect.
I returned home and I thought about calling him, explaining my point, trying to garner some laughter, some semblance of understanding before my words reached his ears from someone else. By this time, I knew he would take it the wrong way. I knew he would never want to speak with me again.
It took about an hour before a light bulb appeared above my head. An idea sprouted out of the dark hysteria of my mind. The only way I was going to prevent my words from reaching his ears was to call the one individual I thought might deliver my words: the acquaintance.
I called and explained to her what I was feeling, that I respected the person we knew in common and that I wouldn’t want to hurt his feeling. She agreed not to say anything and, she added, she probably wouldn’t have said anything anyway. She had already discarded our earlier conversation in favor of a new topic.
When the mouth gets in the way there are times when the mind must play the parent; especially when the child has behaved badly.
Copyright © Tyler Gant 2010 for Just Moving Along .com
