Ticked off

Ever been ticked off: annoyed, bothered, offended? It happens. Big stuff little stuff by people we know or will never know. It almost seems inevitable that someone somewhere sometime is going to join you in a rubbing the wrong way match!

The truth is I have done it and I have had it done. It's no fun. Sometimes the sting lasts for a moment and sometimes we build a monument to it in our minds and make a really huge deal out of it!

One time, hundreds of thousands of seconds ago, I got into a tick match with someone. I said something they did not understand so they said something I didn't appreciate so I said something they did not appreciate and poof. It was over. Bridge burned, line cut, toilet flushed. I had done it. I let my fumble fingers create pixels formed into letters that were fatal. A friendship died, a relationship ended, an association dissed!

It left me wondering. Could the whole thing have been avoided? How and if can it be repaired?

It also got me thinking about ticks...the tick of a clock, a second. A tick mark, which is a small mark beside an item on a list. And of course there is the very small parasite. The point being they are all small.

It made me realize I want to be a person who has more time than a second, more space than an ink mark, and that is not so easily bugged.

What if we all became just a little less likely to strike a match, pull the plug, or press the lever. What if we were not so quick to jump to a conclusion that feels more like an amputation? Which is what follows the tick, the off.

So the next time you're down to your last tick, make sure you stop before the off.