Discretion
I finally realized, Saturday evening in the grocery store parking lot, why I got thrashed (torn buttons and bloody noses and lips, mostly) by the high school kids so often on the bus from the time I was a first grader until I was in fifth or sixth grade (besides that fact that I didn’t ride the bus with a very civil group of high schoolers and that was I wasn’t particularly physically imposing
Follow me!
Sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing the where and when…and it seems that Blogs are just the right sort of place and the time is always right! People who share your ideas will enjoy reading, and somehow you’re less likely to get even a virtual punch in the nose this way!
By the way, there was a long stretch when you were still on the “littler” side when your Nanny or I drove you to school when the bullying was really bad… But bullying is another whole Blog topic and one that probably doesn’t get enough attention overall. Kids can be rotten at any age when the social catalysts are all wrong!
Ah, I would have told them! When it comes to the Super Bowl, I am VERY open about informing others that “not everyone is into it!”
As it so happens, I just happened to spend this past weekend with several different people who didn’t even care that it was going to be on. It was a great weekend!
I am in a similar school of “could care less” but being from Chicago, I had a number of locals and co-workers who would ask things like “got any money on the game”. What?! A former Chicagoan who isn’t fixated on “da Bears”? Heresy! 😉
That said, I do feel bad for my relatives who are BIG fans. The fever was getting pretty intense prior to the game.
I was thinking about when it’s a good time to shut up about the truth this morning as I sat with my arm propped on a plasticky cushion at the local lab having four vials of blood withdrawn. The technician mentioned the Canada geese and robins she had seen in mid-January as evidence of global warming, conversationally. I had just written something about the Audubon bird count and birds that overwinter in this area and I almost corrected her until I thought, maybe I shouldn’t say, “no you’re wrong,” to the woman who has her hand on a needle sticking just now in one of my veins.
Mom — Wild to think back on those times. It amazes me how through that patch you guys managed to gently impart a mix of stoicism and toughness without adding unpleasant retributional aggressiveness to my character…
Jody — Here’s to better television programming!
Scott — That’s part of what’s led me to clam about it in recent years — it’s important enough to many folks I care about that I don’t want to be dismissive or a downer while they’re having so much fun. Now I just hope they’ll do the same when I wax poetic about code, fly fishing, the mixolydian mode or gerunds.
Amy — Yes, wait until the needle’s out for sure — then let her have it!
Thanks for giving me another excuse to run to wikipedia in order to look up Mixolydian mode. 😉 Nice use of “fly fishing” prior to “gerund” though.