Street Mimes, Silent Nodding, and Cake ~ How To Diffuse A Tense Situation
This is a reprise from 2016 and as is often the case, I need to take some of my own advice and keep my mouth shut more often. Unless it causes mouth sores, then I need to speak up. Still figuring out how to make that distinction. How about you?
xox
“Dear Lord — Please keep one hand on my shoulder, and the other hand over my mouth.”
Hard to find a better prayer than that.
When you are in the act of defusing a situation, be it a political argument or an obtuse disagreement about the pronunciation of the word foyer; and I say that because everyone knows there is only one correct pronunciation of the word foyer—Foy-yay—anyway, I highly recommend, if at all possible, a minimum of talking.
Think about it. We mostly defuse anger or frustration. We seldom defuse joy. When I say seldom, I mean never. When was the last time you said,’Oh, Holy Hell, there is just too much joy in this room, I need to change the subject!’
See what I mean?
Defusing is an act best left to heavily outfitted bomb squads, street mimes, or those who have, through some cruel twist of fate, found themselves without a voice.
I say that from experience.
Words tend to get… wordy, meanings become misconstrued, and at a certain point, nobody is listening anyway so I say the fewer the better.
Silent nodding is my preferred method.
Then there’s petting. I’m a big believer in defusing a tense or uncomfortable situation with some awkward physical contact.
I’ve been known to braid a person’s hair or lint brush the shit out of their jacket in the midst of that kind of kinetic, twisty energy.
I do all of those things because it is next to impossible for me to keep my mouth shut. Hence the prayer at the top.
Question: Have you EVER helped this kind of situation by stating the facts, calling for common sense, or getting the last word?
Yeah, me neither.
There is always humor but humor is subjective and it can backfire and not in a funny clown car kind of way.
Let’s face it, there are times when people want nothing more than to vent. Or argue. Some like to pick fights.
It’s been my experience that this seldom ends well if I put in my two cents, so I’ve learned to keep my small change to myself and wait for people to ask for my opinion (which they don’t), or I keep my mouth full of cake. Cheese will do in a pinch, but cake takes forever to chew and swallow, especially without coffee, and by the time you do—the topic has usually shifted to something else… like the deterioration of the Antarctic Ice Caps and how the ice in my drink and the car I drive are contributing to the imminent death of the Planet.
Head… silently…nodding…
Cake anyone?
Carry on,
xox
