Should I or Shouldn’t I?
Decisions are inevitable. Like the food we eat, they’re part of our daily life. Some are simple and straightforward requiring little thought or imagination, like when to walk the dog or sort the laundry. Others give us pause calling for greater introspection and possibly greater consequences. There are pitfalls along the way; our path forward is covered in fog. Yet we step up, take the bull by the horns and run with it. Best case scenario we emerge victorious. Worse case scenario we’re impaled by the sharp tip of the bull’s horn.
Repercussions from my life's decisions fall somewhere in the middle. I wasn’t completely decimated by them, but I didn’t win the war either. I learned from it.
Some years ago, working for a company in DC, I innocently walked into my boss’s office looking for a file. A few co-workers were gathered inside standing against the back wall, laughing and talking in strange voices.
They were ridiculing a newly hired employee, mimicking her distinctive Indian accent. Flashback! High school 5th period gym class all over again! The cool kids bullying the not so cool kid, me.
Say something! I say to myself. Say SOMETHING!!
It's okay. You're not in high school anymore!
What if I'm next?
Who cares!
Just take the file and go! You didn't hear a thing.
I heard too much!
I'm not part of this. This has nothing to do with me.
It has everything to do with me.
If I say nothing, I'm complicit, even worse..a Coward!
Enough!
In full-throated honesty I blurted out, "That's not very nice!” No more conflict, no doubt, just the truth. A few simple words needing a voice. Not only for my co-worker but also for myself.
It didn’t feel like a stellar victory, but a victory all the same. I took the bull by the horns, stood up to the bullies, and said
Somethin
g!
Alice Barbera
