Why are fights so commonplace?

A near dog fight today has me wondering if I behaved badly.

I and my dog approached a slim woman with a much larger dog. Her dog lunged at mine, so forcefully that it pulled the woman to the ground (on the grass), where she rolled at least once trying to restrain the dog.

The whole episode had a cartoonish look to it.

I thought it best to get away as quickly as possible, since my dog's departure seemed to be the surest way to calm down the other dog (before he could break away from the woman). So we walked away.

Upon returning, at the exact same corner, the woman is in her vehicle, where she proceeds to scold me.

"Next time you should be more considerate and stop to see if someone is OK when they fall!"

I guess . . . but as I said, I wanted the confrontation (between dogs) defused, and standing around with the dogs in close proximity likely wasn't going to accomplish that. But maybe I screwed up. People view situations differently, which is why fights are so common.

So I did what any non-confrontationist would do. I said, "Чего? Я не понимаю." And continued on my way home.

 

But it takes two to tango. God is also to blame for creating the concept of sin in the first place.[cross-thread]

 

I had an incident at the airport recently that makes me wonder what's going on in some people's heads.

To cut a long story short, I will confess that I was not in a good mental spot myself. My plane had required an emergency landing (they closed the airport for us), and I was sweating balls for about thirty minutes in the air there, to the point where I was writing texts containing my last wishes. We land, get towed into the gate, disembark. We're three hours late but I'm alive, so who gives a shit. Then I wade into customs hell. Three officers for thousands of people. It's more than an hour in line. Now I'm feeling pretty fucking dark.

Guy in line in front of me, 50s, wife, two adult daughters with him—he keeps turning around to look at me with kind of a weird look on his face. And I am telepathically willing him not to say anything to me. Not now, buddy. I am not the guy.

Finally he says, "I've got to ask you... Are you wearing that T-shirt as a joke? Are you making fun of them?"

I have no idea what he's talking about. I look down at my shirt and I'm wearing one with the old logo for the CBC, our national broadcaster.

"Um, no?"

"Oh, right. Great. So you're a fan of the Communist Broadcasting Corporation?"

Well. I decide to cut the party short. "I'm telling you right now, you should leave me alone."

"I should wear a T-shirt that says CSI on it," he says. "Because I Can't Stand Idiots. Go fuck yourself."

And that was it. I snap. "You should have worn a T-shirt with a little pocket in it, so you have somewhere to put the teeth I'm gonna knock out."

A reminder that I was not having a very good day.

Now his wife is screaming at him, "I'm never traveling with you again!" And the daughters, who were something like 21 and 19, are both crying. He's saying that he's not going to be intimidated, "I'm going to stand up for freedom and democracy." And I'm like, "By making fun of a stranger's T-shirt? In an airport? What the fuck are you thinking?"

And I wonder now: What the fuck was he thinking? Had we been in any other environment, I would have kicked the shit out of him. (Thank God we were in an airport, in hindsight, and I just wanted to get out of there. I could have ended up in jail.) He wasn't a big guy. He has no idea who he's running at, or what kind of day they're having. I could have worked at the CBC. I could have been coming back from my father's funeral. I can only presume I was not the first person he decided to get on. Probably because he hasn't been punched over it, he's still going strong.

But seriously: I have no idea what possesses people to fuck with total strangers.

PS: My favourite part of the whole encounter. There's hundreds of people around us, during it, and someone says, "I just want to say that I love the CBC," in kind of a jokey way, trying to cool things off, but... There were, like, six bros in a pack, coming back from a trip down south, given that they were wearing shorts in the middle of winter. They're in line not far behind me. One of them says, "If they were behind us, I would be all for this. But they're in front of us, and I just want to get home."

The CBC is the fucking best.

 

Secret from middle aged guy, nothing anyone says is that important, you’re not going to persuade them they are wrong.

Many people are ignorant, misinformed, misguided, it’s not worth it. Nothing is, not to even engage them, let alone get into fisticuffs.

Everyone is entitled to their view; I choose to ignore (and hopefully live).

I choose to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and be courteous and kind and try to understand where they are coming from and kill them w kindness.