Categories
motivation

Decisions and Things That go Bump in the Night

The days are getting shorter and night appears to have the upper hand as we get closer to Halloween. Things appear to be more sinister too. Last weekend, I witnessed the first smashed pumpkin for the year. Was it a ghost? A goblin? A slap-happy teenager on Saturday night with too much time on his hands, in the wee hours of the morning?

Darkness brings confusion and lets the imagination get out of control. Was that a screaming banshee or a territorial house cat? Is that a spook scurrying across the yard or a skunk? Either way, I wouldn’t investigate if I were you.

The times of darkness are not the times to make informed decisions. You don’t know if what you see is really what your mind is telling you. You can make some assumptions that are very inaccurate. Decisions based on fear rely too much on your survival instinct. Panic sets in. You feel it’s time to either fight or flee.

Wait until the morning. Be patient for the time of the light. The time of darkness may seem like it’s eternal, but the day always follows the night. You may discover that the fifty-foot tall monster you saw last night was just the leafless oak tree in the back yard.

Categories
webcomic

Good Fight or Good Flight

Cartoon of a man fleeing. He thinks, "Can I fight the good fight if I'm running away?"

I hate tension. Maybe that’s why I like cartoons so much. I always loved the way humor can break tension and turn an angry person into a laughing one. More than once, I’ve had to break a serious moment with a joke. Sometimes that works. Sometimes, well, it can backfire! If someone really wants to be angry, they’ll do anything to keep their sour mood.

When tension comes, my tendency is to crack a joke, then run. But is that fighting the good fight? Once in a while, I need to stand and hold my ground. That doesn’t mean I have to be the angry one. Sorry, but I’m still going to crack a few jokes. I have to get a little laugh out of an incident, right?