Just Walk on By
I’m fixing to just walk on by.
That’s what I told myself when I first observed my nemesis rapidly approaching me from the opposite direction of my path.
My first instinct was twofold.
The first thing I thought about doing was an about face and bolt. But there were a lot of other folks about and I wasn’t anxious to cause a scene, so I dismissed that option.
The second solution provided by my instinct was an evil one.
We unfortunate humans often have evil thoughts which just pop into our minds, and about the best we can do, upon realizing their true nature, is to mentally dismiss them as rapidly as possible in order not to have to deal with them.
This was the logic I used to talk myself out of striking him in his smug nose with my closed fist when our paths brought us adjacent to each other.
Off times you might find it a mite difficult to chase those evil thoughts out of your head, and have to resort to the assistance of mental imagery to rid yourself of them.
For example, when I first thought of delivering a blow to his nose, hearing the sound of crushed cartilage and watching the blood spurt, I put those thoughts to rest, dismissed them from my mind, by thinking real hard about biting into a Varsity hot dog, imagining the taste of it along with the chili, the steamed bun and most likely a few drops of salty sweat.
Sometimes you have to concentrate hard on the mental images, because evil is powerful, but it worked. The thought of that tasty dog chased those evil thoughts right out of my head.
My head was clear now, but when I looked ahead I could see that his head still had that nose attached to it which deserved to be smashed.
Uh oh, there were those evil thoughts again! Sometimes they come back, so I found it necessary to conjure up images of onion rings and fried fruit pies to chase them off again.
He was getting real close now. I clinched my fist, but then let it go limp, because the thought of a simple pleasure had triumphed over the thought of violence.
So you know what I’m going to do when I come face-to-face with him? I’m fixing to just walk on by.