Escaping the argument trap (Part 2)

"Don't answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.  But speak with a fool according to your wisdom lest he think in his soul that he is wise." 
Proverbs 26:4-5


I will never argue again.  I will never verbally fight.

I've said that before, and still did it.  Why?  I see these two reasons:

1. I forget who I'm talking to: an unreasonable person.
2. I forget my focus, allowing myself to get blindsided and distracted.

So, if I don't need to forget these two things, then I need to remember two things instead.

ONLY REASON WITH REASONABLE PEOPLE
I used to be a bouncer, and the head bouncer had this motto:  Never try to reason with a drunkard.
It seems obvious.  But I would forget.  I actually had an experience that was just as telling.  A drunk woman, or a woman who was leaving tipsiness and entering intoxication, said, "I keep forgetting I'm talking to someone who is sober."  Look at that.  Even as she approached drunkenness, she had to remind herself that the best person to talk to when you're drunk is someone else whose drunk.  She saw what the head bouncer saw: The sober and the drunk can't converse.  Sober people converse with sober people.  Drunks converse with drunks. 

But I forget.  I start talking to a drunk person as if she's sober.  In doing so, I become drunk with rage.  I allow myself to get into the hellishness of arguments, the merry-go-round of fighting. 

Never again.  I will reason with the reasonable, reasonably.  With the unreasonable, I will either completely avoid them, not talk to them at all, or speak as briefly as possible.

Click here for part 3.

(The image above is from Google Images)