Chivalry is dead . . . at least in my home!

The other night I got myself into major hot water with the Mrs. In fact, in my 2 ½ years of marriage, I can only think of maybe one or two other times when I upset her as much. Thing is, usually when she is mad at me I can easily understand—typically she only gets mad when I do something stupid. But not this time. This happened to be one time when I thought I was doing the right thing—Think Again!

While crossing the street after a crowded athletic competition some punk kid yelled at us. More specifically he directed a crude remark toward my wife and the other woman who was walking next to us. When the woman turned and told him to shut up he responded by yelling “Fu.. you bitch, Fu.. both of you!” At this I turned and said “Are you kidding me?” Then he yelled more obscenities.

Because he was in a car waiting at a stop light I turned to walk toward the punk, but the car drove forward. Luckily for me they only moved about 15 yards and I was able to follow. When I approached the car the kid, probably 19 or 20 jumped out of the car and got in my face screaming all sorts of vulgarities about me and my wife. All I did was tell him to grow up.”

Look, I’m not some hard-ass tough guy looking to assert my manhood, but when someone says obscene things about my wife I believe I am well within my rights to confront them. Problem was I couldn’t tell just how old this kid was. He was significantly shorter than I, and not in any way tough looking, so I am confident I could have put him in his place fairly easily, but with the possibility of him being under 18, I didn’t want to risk it.

His friends forced him back into the car and I caught up with my wife. Except she didn’t want anything to do with me. For the next 5 minutes she screamed at me for being stupid, then she spent the next 45 minutes in silence.

Now I know, ‘tis better to let punk kids verbally defile what is most sacred to me then to have a backbone. I don’t know if my actions will change, but at least I know what I will be getting in trouble for.

A CAVALIER NATION

Haughty. Imperious. Pretentious. Call it what you will, it is a major problem, and I am as much to blame as anyone. I guess you could say that I have always been a bit conceited—a regular old know-it-all—particularly when it comes to matters of my own “expertise,” but lately I have become more aware of this attitude, particularly among the so called erudite people who claim intellectual superiority because they once took an economics class, or read the Wall Street Journal, or listen to the occasional report on N.P.R..

Remember when as missionaries we would hear about the Pastor or Priest who spread nonsense about the Mormons? The rote response became “well, you wouldn’t expect a knowledgeable opinion of a Ford from a Chevy dealer would you?” I, for one, have mostly forgotten this principle. We would never ask an insurance salesman for medical advice, nor would we expect a mechanic to be able to offer legal advice, yet for some reason we seem to be seeking a second opinion from everyone but the people most likely to have an understanding of that about which we ask them to opine.

I am not saying it is a bad idea to seek counsel from those we trust. In fact, counseling with others is an eternal principal which leads to correct actions. I just don’t understand why we are willing to replace quality advice with “my buddy read in his marketing text book . . .”

The other day I was told by a client that his sister, a nurse who “is very good with numbers,” gave him some advice that was 100% opposed to the advice that I had been offering. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME! What I should have said was “ok, why don’t you take your application to the hospital and have your sister get your financing.” Instead I had to spend an additional hour setting him straight on the errors of her logic, which, without 6 years in the industry I wouldn’t have easily recognized.

As my attention and distain for the “self-acknowledging knowledge hounds” of the world has increased, my awareness of my own tendencies has also be raised. This, as you can imagine, has left me both frustrated for my superciliousness, and disgusted with my hypocrisy. What we need is a serious effort to put our own pride on the shelf and listen to the people who have the actual knowledge in the areas in which we are less knowledgeable. Look, there is nothing wrong with being educated, intellectual, or well-informed, as long as we keep our knowledge in perspective. Being good at math makes one no more prepared to be a loan officer than being good at music makes one prepared to teach a high school history class—even if you have read the biography of Abraham Lincoln.

That’s just the way I see it. Now, if you will excuse me I have to go meet my plumber to go over my taxes!

WHAT'S ALL THIS BREW-HA-HA?

I guess I have been missing something. Blog nation is here and I have completly missed the boat. While I will admit that I spend way too much time sitting at the office searching the net, I dont know if I have ever even read a blog. I know that everyone has one, but I guess I just dont see why.

As I understand it, a weblog is basically an online-public journal. I don't even keep a private-paper journal anymore. If this is anything like the journals I have had in the past I would anticipate one entry every 18-24 months. The other day I pulled out my journal and realized that if left untouched, my posterity would assume that after my engagement in June of 2003 I somehow vanished from the earth.

So, here I am in the world of the blog. Does that mean I am a blogger? Do I have unnatural influence over politics? Am I an unaccredited source for breaking news or sports related rumors? I guess with my own blog I am officially Bona Fide!