Someone Yells, 'You're an Idiot!'



When it gets really cold, I sometimes wear a face covering when I run, you know a mask. It warms the breath and keeps the chill off my face. 


So, I'm out running yesterday around 5pm. Just before my 6pm Krav class when I hear a big old pick up truck coming down the road. 

It's moving loud and proud up the hill Westbound toward me...

I'm running on the snow covered sidewalk trying to navigate the ice, cold and fatigue, so I don't pay that much attention to it. 

As it goes by the dude in the passenger seat yells out the window,

"Nice Mask Idiot!"

Really?! I think to myself.

Did he just say that?

Come on...

How stereo typical is THAT?! Some dude in a big ol' pickup truck yelling something like that. He was a few bumper stickers and a flag short of being a meme.

Was that really necessary?!

Apparently you, good sir have never jogged in this kind of weather before. If you had, you may realize why I was wearing the face rag you were so enthusiastic commenting about.  

Much to your dismay, I wasn't wearing this 'mask' for reasons you probably believed me to be. 

And even if I had been, what difference does it make to you?!

It doesn't really affect you either way. 

But, such as life in the times we live in. 

I simply shook my head, chuckled to myself and carried on. 

Sometimes You Just Can't Win...

Last week, I got it from the other side of the 'aisle' for my Joe Rogan email. 

It worked out alright, after a few emails I think everyone was (pretty much) on the same page.

I have to admit I sometimes find people amusing!

We're all 'funny' in our own way.

You, me, us, them... 

Everyone!

Luckily, I'm my own person and have a pretty thick skin when it comes to others opinions or perspectives, even and especially when those opinions are wrong about me or my views.

I find it especially amusing when I'm not really trying to assert my viewpoint on anyone, one way or the other.  

It's interesting how sometimes folks are so wrapped up into their own world and opinions that they read into things and make assumptions. 

Possibly we are so used to the wielding of, or being influenced by what others think, suggest, say and do, that we forget that people have the power to make their own decisions.

I have always been more of an independent thinker. My identity goes deeper than some superficial group or category I am a part of or not. No religion, political party, nationality, ethnicity or other group will define my identity or cloud my vision when it comes to connecting to other people. 

We all have many identities. They shift and change as our age, responsibility, interest and/or situation changes...

However my two deepest identities are: 

#1 - I'm a human being
#2 - I'm a protector of Life

I believe aside of all of our relative differences, those two identities reveal our Universal similarity.  

When their is doubt or difference between me and another person, I try to (re)connect with them on those two deep levels. 

I have to make a choice...

Who am I going to choose to be?!

A Protector? A bully? A victim?

I choose to be Protector... A PeaceWalker!

What Am I going to choose see in others?

I choose to look beyond our relative differences and see that at their core, they are human just like me.

With the same basic wants, needs and feelings that I have, no matter our more superficial differences. 

Once I (re)establish that connection, everything else is just details. 

Oh, I will add one more thing...

Stop trying to control others....

Quit worrying about what everyone else is doing or thinking. Do you. Be the master of your own domain. Exert more control over yourself and less energy at trying to control everyone else. 

It makes conflict more easy to navigate...

It's a simpler Life. 

That's not to say it removes all the conflicts... 

Oh, no no no!

I wish! 

If that was the case we wouldn't be in the state we're in...

It just make everything clearer and simpler to navigate. 

As Holocausts survivor Viktor Frankl famously stated:

'Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.'



Want More?!

Get my free PeaceWalker home study course here: https://sixdaydefense.com/



Keep going,
~Craig

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