I was leaving the video store where I wander like a sad little puppy on the weekends, pretending to look for a video, but really hoping some young, vibrant woman my age will say, "Hi, wanna be friends?"
As I was leaving with two movies in hand I saw a group of three thuggish looking teenagers, perhaps 16 or 17 years old, clad in black and white (which I assume was some sort of wanna-be gang affiliation, they actually looked way too wealthy to be "real" O.G.s).
They're laughing, listening to their iPods, (Eminem I assume), and suddenly one gets close to this car parked by the sidewalk they're walking on. I can't hear anything because I'm too far away, rubbernecking while I strap Ash to his car seat. The teen is getting all aggressive with whoever is in the car. I squint my eyes and see a young man sitting in the passenger's seat.
Suddenly, this grown man comes out of nowhere, grabs the little thug by the neck and fakes like he's going to bash this kid's head in to this pole. He won't let go of this kid and finally shoves him back. The kid is actually taller than this guy, but this man is obviously the kid in the car's father and he is NOT having it. The other two friends are shocked. One is standing kind of close like he wants to do something but not sure if he should. The third one is standing way back just watching. After several tense minutes of the father staring down these kids, stepping closer and closer to get them to back away, they finally do, spewing obscenities and flipping the bird. The man walks back into the store, but he's watching the whole time.
I say it was cool, because there was something so primal about a man defending his child. It didn't matter if this kid could have handled it himself, he was threatened and the father threw down! I wanted to call out, "Go DAD!" - and then call the police on those kids.
It also taught me that fighting is ugly and rarely worth it. Kill 'em with kindness is my new motto. Ironically I saw this guy in my neighborhood when I got home, who got a little to aggressive with me and whom Terry had to call from Iraq and threaten to stay away from me :)
2 comments:
LOL, well, I haven't put my new motto into practice yet...we'll see how long it lasts :)
Hmmm yes after all these years of martial arts I try to solve the problem first with words before violence. But when threatened sometimes its better to just kick some arse right up front.
I think the better concept is having the knowledge and ability to use which method appropriately.
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