Lighten up Francis

I was ‘mad-dogged’ by a 65 year old lady yesterday.

I pulled up a little too far in the road trying to make a left hand turn. There was plenty of room for an oncoming car to go around. But the lady drove by real slow and gave me the ‘stare down.’

Now, how can I put this tactfully, the part of Long Beach where I come from, ‘mad dogging’ doesn’t go over very well. But then really, what was I going to do anyway?  

So I smiled, gave the obligatory ‘my-bad’ hand wave, and drove off.

While driving home, I started wondering why people are so ticked off with one another these days. It seems like we’re running a little hot. More like a slow burn just below the collective conscious.

I notice it in our public discourse, where a lot verbal  mad-dogging is going on because, God forbid, someone states a different point of view.

All this recent posturing and political mad-dogging one another, you’d get the feeling we don’t like each other very much. Were at each others throats, and in my opinion, that’s just where the politicians want us.

We need to take a collective breath; get a hold of ourselves and lighten up.  

In the 1981 Bill Murray movie Stripes, there’s a character named Francis, who threatens his Army unit, telling them “if you call me Francis I’ll Kill ya”  Then without blinking the Sergeant say’s “Lighten up Francis.”

We all have a point of view, let’s give one another the common courtesy of voicing it without verbally mad-dogging them.

Disagreement is not hatred; it’s just a different way of looking at the situation or issue-period.

After all, there are more important things in life for me than getting upset at a 65 year old lady or a political demagogue who can’t keep it together.  

Lighten up Francis…peace.