No Exceptions

Remember the story about how the bank messed up my file? Cost me 60 days. No kidding. I hope one day next year I can sit back and dring my Limonata in splendid peace and pretend it never happened. Until then, stress city.

If no consequences came of that action no biggie, right? Pick and choose your battles, don't sweat the small stuff, think about the big prize, you have your health, people are worse off, blah, blah, bling and other blathering sayings we repeat to ourselves lest we lose our minds.

Was I angry. You bet your Angie's ass I was. I did blow off some steam but it was kept mainly under control because of one reason: I didn't want to hear two dreaded words - Calm down.

That's the worst thing you can tell someone when they're angry. Specifically, when they have the right to be angry.

It only feeds the anger. Kinda like how a third man jumps in a fight that's not theirs. I learned that lesson early in life. It was at a soccer game. And two guys, I reckon, thought it was a hockey match and began pounding each other. Oh, the blood. A third guy, jumped in to help out his friend to try and break it up. Guess what? We had to restrain the pugilist from beating his friend up. "Never get involved. EVER!" he screamed with his emotions clearly still in the heat of battle. That irked him more than the guy he laid out on the pitch.

Let 'em go and let 'em blow off steam.

Intervening is senseless.

But being told to calm down isn't my beef. Two other words make me wonder: No exceptions.

As in, we can't do that, no exceptions. Which is usually followed by "if we do it for you then we have to do it for everyone." Which, in turn, is met with a nod agreeing with it.

This is a tricky one. Lines have to be drawn. I get that. However, where I begin to wane is when it's followed even when it makes no sense; for its own sake. Even when clearly if an exception is made for you, there's no way for it to spread. "I'll make this exception only this one time!" probably happens often.

For example, to get back to my bank story. One of the payments I wanted to claim on my government loan was past the 180 days cut off. No problem. However, the bank (who remain embarrassed as they should) tried to explain to the government the reason I was past the cut off was because of their mistake. The government, because you know, bureaucrats are not permitted to see shades of grey when they don't feel like it, said sorry, 'no exceptions' can be made.

We tried. I knew they were going to turn it down. I just have to chalk it up to one of those annoying things life throws at you.

I go to two Italian restaurants. One charges no tax, the other does. When I asked the latter if we can save on the taxes he told me he doesn't do it because it gets messy after a while and he wasn't interested in it. The former feels the government are a bunch of corrupt, blood sucking rats raping the productive and does it as a form of fuck you protest.

Point is, people choose where they want their exceptions. They understand the world of exceptions and apply it as they see fit.

Here's the thing for me. I live a different kind of philosophical existence. I'm not rigid (I used to be and realized it was idiotic), I learned setting hard policies with no room for flexibility solve nothing, and I realized going around pretending you can live in a world as if it's predictable and organized can make you a little coo-coo since life, well, is a mess.

I learned to become agile and adaptable making decisions on the fly. Making yes or no judgments as they come. I have no preconceived "laws of nature" or laws of anything. Sure, it may seem incoherent or even contradictory but every decision comes with its own unique blend of circumstances and considerations.

In other words, there ARE exceptions in life.

I'm sure the person charged with the decision somewhere in the halls of Bureaucracialand agreed it was "unique" and was an "exceptional" case but hey, rules are rules. Policies are policies.

Hence, I'm the triangle and they're the square.

Unless of course....ah, forget it.

I'd better calm down.