Words to live by

Many years ago, Michael gave me some words of wisdom. He said, "Never wrestle with a pig. The pig will like it and you'll just get dirty."

This simple phrase has helped me time and time again over the years. When I feel someone isn't be "fair" or is being an "asshole", I feel compelled to show them or tell them about it. But, it almost never does any good and everyone just ends up feeling worse.

This came up this week when a parent from the preschool turned in an article (a short bio of themselves) for the newsletter that Michael and I are responsible for at the school. It was very, very long. Way longer than anyone elses including details such as dates and endless descriptions of places he's visited. I thanked him for his submission and added that it was a bit long and could he shorten it. I even supplied a sample edited version. He told me NO. There was no way he could shorten it and in fact, it was already "just a snap shot" of his life. He said he would OPT OUT from this if it couldn't be used as is. I again explained to him about the cost of the newsletter to print and space allocations in it, but he only responded asking for the exact character limit that he could use if he did decide to shorten it. I told him I didn't have an exact character count but that 5-7 sentences (what I had originally said) would be fine. He then told me that I could find out the character count and proceeded to explain to me about characters and how to count them in a text box.

I already felt a little dirty, but better later than never, I told him I would be happy to print the bio as is and I would just Make It Work. I thanked him for his time and efforts.

Oink.