#Reverb14 Day 6

Think back to such a situation: if the gloves were off, how you really would have liked to have dealt with them?

Oh my goodness, Brad. It’s like you’ve kept up with my life’s circumstances and got inside my head. Despite our usually sunny dispositions and dedication to the practice of “assuming positive intent,” we all occasionally find ourselves having to deal with an incredibly unpleasant individual. Oh, and was she EVER incredibly, horrifically, DISGUSTINGLY unpleasant to deal with! While I’m sure you always handle it with the tact and finesse for which you’ve become so well known, I’m going to ask you to step outside yourself for just a moment. Actually, that’s exactly what it took for me to get this lousy excuse for a human being removed from my business — stepping outside my typical “sunny disposition” and getting angry and demanding. However, I still managed it with tact and poise. I contacted supervisors and state officials to express my displeasure and demand that my voice be heard. It was no wonder my voice couldn’t be heard elsewhere — it was tied up in bureaucracy, fighting the powers that be!

But if those gloves came off, if the facade came down, I would have loved to verbally degrade that woman. I would have relished the opportunity to use several “choice words,” to use the language of rush hour traffic in New York City. I had moments where I imagined how gratifying it would be to slap her in the face, shout obscenities at her, and send her on her way. To me, she is a monster. She brought fear into the hearts of my children. She removed my husband, the father of my children, and my oldest. For a year and a half we fought the system and proved that we were wronged. Of course, we get no restitution for our suffering. And my anger flares once more — what I would give to have that opportunity to take off the gloves and curse her out. She so deserves it. How many children did she ignore who truly needed her to intervene while callously attempting to destroy mine? But one thing is for certain — I know now that I will always find amazing strength to protect and provide for my babies. No one can ever take that from us.