Breaking Point

I worked in restaurants for many years before I fell in love with the internet. If you wait tables for any length of time, you will run into a bad surprise. You’ll reach for a glass, wine glass or water, and it will shatter in your hands. You don’t even have to grip it particularly firmly, just the act of holding it will cause it to break.

The first time this happened to me, I freaked.

I immediately apologized to the waiter next to me, “I didn’t grab it that hard!”
And she said, “Yeah, that happens. It’s because the dishwasher is so hot, y’know to sterilize. Then we take those glasses and put ice and cold liquid in them. All that up and down, all that stress. Eventually they break.”
And she walked away, and I got the broom.

Sometimes on Twitter, email or even  face to face, you’ll say something to another person. And it’s completely innocuous, but they FREAK! Maybe they tear into you, or burst into tears.

You might say to yourself, “What’s wrong with them?” thinking to yourself, that person is crazy as a betsy bug.

But what if you thought, “What is wrong with them? Who burned them? Who froze them out? What stressed them over and over until they shatter on touch?”

Think of the glass.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Ian MacLaren

 

Photo by Lucy Downey

2 Comments

Add Yours
  1. 2
    Pawel Grabowski

    Behind nearly all anger you will find a fear. Fear of … ? Being judged, loosing authority, showing your true self, admitting you may not know everything etc…

Comments are closed.