Be Careful about Threatening, Part One

"Rebel, for two cents, I would whip you right now!" _____________________ You are going to threaten someone? Think about it first. Then think about it again. Consider the other hand, or maybe even another. You never know how your threat will be received or what response it might draw. _____________________ Their disagreement was getting shorter, temperatures rising. It was James who said: "Rebel, for two cents I would whip you right now." Does that sound like a threat to you? Rebel, James, Karcher, Jesse, and I were "barn boys." We were college students who worked at the college livestock barns. We lived in the barns. That was a way to insure that we would not be late for chores at 5:00 a.m. James, who was majoring in campusology, didn’t show up for chores one cold October morning, The beef herdsman, a no-nonsense man of few words, asked where James was. James had come in too late too many nights and had been too sound asleep for the rest of us to get him up. Someone answered: "James is still in the sack." Mr. Dehay filled a bucket with water, walked in to James’ bunk, emptied a five-gallon bucket of cold water on James, from toe to head, then simply said: "Time for chores, James." Mr. Dehay didn’t threaten. It was this same James who told our Arkansas "Rebel," that for two cents he would whip him then and there. Hot-tempered Rebel turned around, walked across the room to his desk drawer, found a dollar bill, and walked back across the room. He extended the bill to Jams and with a fiery voice announced: "You owe me ninety-eight cents change!" Their conflict had been over something relatively trivial. James was so struck by humor of Rebel’s overreaction that he burst out laughing. Poor Reb didn’t know what to do now that James had defused the threatened explanation. You never know how someone will respond to your threat. You may wind up looking like a fool. Think before you threaten. Part two will follow.