Toughen Up

A few weeks ago I was hanging out on the door of a local club with one of my former students who was bouncing there.

We were outside chatting when one of the patrons left with a buddy and, no sooner had he made it to the corner, he was in a screaming match with two other guys.

There was a fair bit of yelling and then the patron came back to ask our opinion as to whether he was justified in fighting these guys because one of them accused him of being on steroids. The accuser was there also trying to apologize and both mates were trying to calm their respective friends down as well. Usual Saturday night on the door I guess...lol.

The accused steroid user wasn't having any of it...he wanted a fight by crikey...his honor had been sullied...someone had - gasp - accused our intrepid hero of using the juice. (never mind that it looked like he probably was). There he was with his jaw stuck out (stupid idea) raging against his mate, trying his darnedest to get to the other guy so they could fight. All the while the accuser just kept apologizing and trying to shake hands.

The irate patron meantime kept asking us for justification. Finally I got around to answering him. "Mate...you're on 3 cameras and there's cops everywhere...give it a swerve. Go home. Don't worry about it."

Nope...he wanted a fight so I asked him "got a question for you skippy...if you fight this guy and his head hits the bricks and he dies, will it all have been worth it? Will you be sitting in a cell thinking it was all worth it?"

I doubted it but he didn't get the message and still wanted to fight at which point the accuser, his mate and steroid boy's mate had all but had enough and got around to leaving.

Here's the deal...I've been guilty in the past of fighting over some perceived slur to defend my honor etc. but I've learned over the years it probably wasn't worth it for a great many of them.

Develop a thicker skin for god's sake...if you don't care what someone thinks about politics, religion or a particular TV show why should you care what they think of you?

If you can do this it will go along way to keeping you out of unnecessary fights...and avoidance is a HUGE part of self protection.