Sit Your Ground

Sometimes, in the face of an emergency it’s best to sit on your hands. As Edmund Burke once said, “the only way to triumph over evil is for good men to do nothing.” Doing nothing, as a technique, is highly underrated. How many times have you stirred your sauce too much or tinkered with an engine block to the point of creating a new problem? Wait it out. The thing is, doing nothing is still doing something, just a different something from the standard thing.

Why sit on your hands? Because when you do that, they start to tingle and you forget what it is you were supposed to do. The only thing on your mind now getting the blood back to the two most useful extremities (which ones are up to you).

Self-defense is a strange concept, but the word mostly missed by critics and supporters of the practice is the word, “self.” It’s why the wisest fire departments in the country ignore every call. They understand that fire is a natural force, like wind or rain, and you don’t see any civil servants trying to fight back an out of control gust. If anything, these fire watchers bring s’mores and marinated ribs to a blaze, leaving the hoses and extinguishers at home. They are there to make the most of a bad situation, not to escalate, but to turn a raging inferno into a neighborhood cookout. Perhaps quick thinking and some marinated meat could have made Pompeii more of a “party atmosphere” and even garnered a Zagat rating.

When the lockdowns first started, the shut-ins, a community of people living a life of locked luxury, were many steps ahead of the general public. They understand that going outside can only cause trouble. 

People are always going on and on about the Good Samaritans. But notice how they were good, not great. That’s all you get for helping someone in need. Not only that, but do we know any of them by name? Nope. No statues to speak of, no free tickets to a ballgame, no ribbon cutting ceremonies, no nightclub invitations. We lump they all in together. The Smart Samaritans stayed home and kept to themselves. They didn’t get mixed up in the messianic aspirations of a local yokel.

And patience is always a virtue.