I had opportunity today to be thinking about the dangers of drama. It is so easy to escalate a situation by the careless use of words, tone and body gestures. While I was thinking of this, I remembered a rather humorous example of a “poor choice of words” that led to way too much drama - and I thought you’d enjoy.
Several years ago while my sister and I were still in high school, my parents went on a road trip to SoCal to bring my two older brothers home from College. That particular day, here in the north, I was gone at a track meet for a substantial part of the evening and my parents were due back a few hours before my arrival (important detail here, this is pre cell phone.)
When I got home that evening, the loving family members quickly approached me - this was the conversation:
Them (anxiously) - “Where have you been?”
Me (knowing the track meet was on the calendar) - “At a track meet, why?”
Them - “You’re entire family was in a car crash. Your brother’s car was totaled.”
Me - “…”
Me - “…”
Me - “What?”
Apparently what had ACTUALLY happened was that, somewhere around Portland, traffic came to a sudden halt. One of my brothers, perhaps following my Dad too closely (they were caravan-ing it) bumped the back of my Dad’s vehicle which in turn bumped him into the car in front of him. While my brother’s car did bear the brunt of the damage (a slight bending of the hood - the deployed airbags sealed the vehicles fate), the damage between my Dad’s car and the other was not even a fender-bender, it was like a fender-smudger.
Were they in an accident, sure. Did the accident delay their arrival home, yep. Were the words: “entire family,” “car crash,” and “totaled” the BEST words to use? Probably not. Beware the drama!
Enjoy!
