I Thought You Said This Would Work

by Ann Garvin

“It’s okay to give up some ground to keep the peace.”

“We’re odd, we humans,” she would say. “We know people die, but we act astonished when it happens. What is astonishing about death is our certainty that it isn’t going to happen to us or anyone we know without some kind of warning. And, we live our life doing stupid things like gossiping, when we should spend all our days planting flowers.”

As I said, thanks is one. Also try, We’re different; Good to know; Hmmmm, I’ll think about that; and if they say something offensive, just say, Go Badgers and don’t follow up with anything.” “Go Badgers?” “Look, an inappropriately aggressive or intentionally wacky question or statement deserves an equally wacky response.”