Inspired by the "long fuse" podcast , any of you all had a "long fuse" in your life?
Maybe it hasn't blown yet, or won't ever. But, it got lit. Could be something big, or something silly.
I'll share......mine is silly.
I was in 2nd grade at a typical rural southern school in the late 80's. A school that used to be k thru high converted to K only. Wood floors, brick buildings, an unheated little concrete block building as a boy's bathroom, all the wonderful and "dangerous" playground equipment of that era.
One day, sitting in class a kid got up to go get something from their cubby. We had to put our back packs in the cubby, I assume so kids didn't eff with their stuff all day at their seats. I sat near the pencil sharpener. As the kid walked by, they ran into it and knocked the shavings all over the floor.
The teacher tells me to clean it up since I did it. I didn't do sh^%. I'm just sitting in my seat listening. So I said that it was the kid who walked by it. This escalated to the point of me refusing to clean it up and being put in isolation behind the cubby wall and going to the office at some point for refusing.
I didn't know who any of the popular saints killed on posts or in the fire were at the time, but that's how I felt as a 2nd grader.
Get home, parents DGAF. They were a kind of mealy mouthed southerners "well now, we just listen to what the teacher says and do that."
The long fuse is this.........that day formed the mold of how I view social justice. It also lit a long fuse of losing a little respect for my parents over years for being predominantly rule-following religious folks instead of moral code people of faith. Lastly, it balanced out my upbringing in a rule-following household that never questioned authority to empower me to know when to do just that........challenge authority.
I didn't realize this as a 2nd grader. Nor a middle school kid. Or a snotty know it all high school kid.
However, it wasn't all a loss of respect as a recognition of this personality type. You still can overall respect people for who they are, but not be endeared by every part of them.
At least being able to recognize it, I could effectively deal with it when I come across it in the future.
Did the fuse ever reach its end? I now have kids, and I raise them to recognize that rules exist for reasons.......but also so do social justice and times to question authority. And knowing how to use those in balance is a key to happiness and success. So mine ends with closing the circle by giving my kids the tools to succeed.
Maybe it hasn't blown yet, or won't ever. But, it got lit. Could be something big, or something silly.
I'll share......mine is silly.
I was in 2nd grade at a typical rural southern school in the late 80's. A school that used to be k thru high converted to K only. Wood floors, brick buildings, an unheated little concrete block building as a boy's bathroom, all the wonderful and "dangerous" playground equipment of that era.
One day, sitting in class a kid got up to go get something from their cubby. We had to put our back packs in the cubby, I assume so kids didn't eff with their stuff all day at their seats. I sat near the pencil sharpener. As the kid walked by, they ran into it and knocked the shavings all over the floor.
The teacher tells me to clean it up since I did it. I didn't do sh^%. I'm just sitting in my seat listening. So I said that it was the kid who walked by it. This escalated to the point of me refusing to clean it up and being put in isolation behind the cubby wall and going to the office at some point for refusing.
I didn't know who any of the popular saints killed on posts or in the fire were at the time, but that's how I felt as a 2nd grader.
Get home, parents DGAF. They were a kind of mealy mouthed southerners "well now, we just listen to what the teacher says and do that."
The long fuse is this.........that day formed the mold of how I view social justice. It also lit a long fuse of losing a little respect for my parents over years for being predominantly rule-following religious folks instead of moral code people of faith. Lastly, it balanced out my upbringing in a rule-following household that never questioned authority to empower me to know when to do just that........challenge authority.
I didn't realize this as a 2nd grader. Nor a middle school kid. Or a snotty know it all high school kid.
However, it wasn't all a loss of respect as a recognition of this personality type. You still can overall respect people for who they are, but not be endeared by every part of them.
At least being able to recognize it, I could effectively deal with it when I come across it in the future.
Did the fuse ever reach its end? I now have kids, and I raise them to recognize that rules exist for reasons.......but also so do social justice and times to question authority. And knowing how to use those in balance is a key to happiness and success. So mine ends with closing the circle by giving my kids the tools to succeed.