Copyrights reserved by the author. If you are in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' and read the details.A fine line exists between courage and stupidity By J. G. Fabiano The older I get the more I realize the aging process has a tendency to shorten the length of the nerve that connects the brain to the mouth. In fact, the older one gets this nerve sometimes has a tendency to literally disappear. The other day I walked into a group of colleagues talking about something I had nothing to do with. As to why I did this I don't know but it was a choice between interrupting a conversation or going back to my desk in order to get some work done. As I listened I noticed one of the people in the conversation had a rather large mole growing on her face. Since my room was at the opposite side of the school I rarely saw this individual. Instead of ignoring mole I asked what the heck it was on her face. Needless to say this stopped all conversation at which time the little group left attempting to console the woman who looked like she wanted to commit suicide. Walking myself back to my room I started to think about other times when it would have been best to think about my thoughts instead of blurting them out. Not long ago during a staff meeting the administration talked about a program that was meant to teach our students how to live their lives. Since, being the dinosaur I am, I thought the purpose of a teacher was to teach his or her subject and the purpose of the parents were to teach their child about how to successfully live their lives I made the statement I thought the program was imbecilic. Like the conversation between colleagues the meeting came to an abrupt halt. In fact, at that second I thought I only thought about the statement and had not said it out loud. In defense I just looked around the room with a questioning expression on my face asking, "What?" I have always believed one should state their ideas and principles and not hold them back in order to keep the peace. This is a good way of losing the peace. But, I also understood opening one's mouth at the wrong time even though courageous can also be quite stupid. This does not always happen at school. How I still have a family is above and beyond my comprehension. The other day I was chatting with my wife on IM. If you don't know what this is it is instant messenger. If I have some time during school I check to see if she is talking to my daughter on line. Every now and then I catch her and we chat about just about nothing. The nice part about this means of communication is one can multi-task. What I mean by this is one can chat and still get some things done at your desk. This is a good thing but it can also get you in a bit of trouble. When I left for work that morning I asked my wife what she had planned. She told me she wanted to get some work done around the house. She also told me she wanted to clean the bathrooms. For some odd reason that comment stuck in my mind because during our chat I asked her if she had finished cleaning the bathrooms yet. Well, I could have asked if she gained 30 pounds because for the next couple of minutes there was no response. Then the response flew across the screen. She asked me why I would ask such a thing. I wrote back telling her it was just idle conversation. I found out a couple of days later after living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that one should never ask if one's wife has finished cleaning the bathrooms. My wife tells me most every day the biggest problem I have in my quest to survive myself is I rarely pay attention. I know she is right because every time I lose track of the reality around me I get myself into trouble. Now I am not saying I am stupid. I teach chemistry and have worked with DNA bio-informatics. But, asking me who called on the phone ten minutes after the call was made is difficult. The older I get the more I realize the aging process has a tendency to shorten the length of the nerve that connects the brain to the mouth. But, now that I think about it, age has nothing to do with it. The End.
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