Most everyone’s had to deal with ‘walking on eggshells’ at some point in their life. I’m not talking about working on a poultry farm or in a kitchen. The general description for walking on eggshells is: “To be very careful about what you do or say to someone, because they are easily upset or offended.”
I worked with a guy for several years, and on some days if you said, “Good morning,” it would set him off. After so many years of not knowing what mood the co-worker was in, I’d merely nod when he walked in the door. I’m not sure what was happening upstairs, but others simply said he got up on the wrong side of the bed.
I believe there was more to it than that, because this man abruptly quit one day, with him and his wife quickly leaving for another state. I never heard the reason why, yet something drastic had definitely taken place forcing him to desert a perfectly good job.
My wife shared the same office with a fellow that she says was always cordial and polite. One day Joleen was talking to him and she mentioned the Vietnam War. That’s all it took for the former soldier to go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. He was insistent to her that there was never any such war and it was a conflict. His threatening demeanor and abrupt posturing actually scared my wife. Joleen said from that point on he was less communicative.
The common definition for Jekyll and Hyde is the following: “Used in reference to a person or thing that alternately displays two different sides to their character or nature.” Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was evidently lurking under this man’s skin causing him to act that way.
Later in life I came to realize there is a correlation between Jekyll and Hyde personalities and bi-polar disorder. This all came to be after an encounter with a now deceased family member.
Trudy (not her real name) seemed to be either warm or cold each time we met up. When I say warm I mean she was receptive to carrying on a decent conversation. With the snap of a switch she’d become argumentative and hostile.
I didn’t know what was taking place, believing that it was my highly opinionated and conservative viewpoint that lit her fuse. Sadly, it was too late after I came to realize that she had a mental problem. At this point, dementia had already set in, and there was no chance of reconciliation. Trudy died soon afterward. Since that time, I have more empathy for those struggling with severe depression-like conditions.
At one time I was a bit abrasive and vocal towards those of differing opinion. There was nothing worse than sitting in a restaurant or diner hearing someone verbally trash my president, and I’m not talking Joe Biden. These days, I’ve learned to not retaliate, and simply sit back and listen. Keeping my trap shut, I fight back via sending contributions to select political candidates, as well as voting for them at the ballot box.
I’ve also become much more diplomatic in later years, deciding it’s wiser to keep all political opinions to myself, especially where strangers are concerned. I now listen to folks with different viewpoints and merely chastise or condemn them under my breath instead of out loud. In doing so, they often believe I agree with their ideology, keeping potential inflammatory conversations to a minimum.
Everyone’s heard the saying, “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.” It’s a good statement after an argument and I’ve used it a time or two myself. Generally, after I’m forced to utter such, I still have unanswered questions at the tip of my tongue on why they don’t quite see things my way.
My lips have yearned to politely blurt out as we parted company, wanting the last word of course, “Perhaps if you educate yourself on this subject a tad more, you’ll see things much more clearly!”
Common sense dictates that if I ever did this, depending on the person it’s said to, something besides eggshells might be broken!
I like to write junk... 