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In my daily travels, I encounter a
plethora of interesting characters, as I am sure many of you do. I
must say that the older I get, the more confused I become about
human behavior. I also think that I am becoming a bit more passive
as the aging process becomes more of a reality. I am coming to the
conclusion that there are two kinds of people in this world (okay,
that is not really true but for this article’s sake, pretend that it
is): those with tact and those who are lacking it. I mean, sometimes
it is better to keep your pie hole shut if you are not sure of what
is about to come running out of it. I speak of this because of
several encounters of late that have captured my attention. So, for
this month, welcome to my rantings about human behavior, number one
zillionth in a series.
The other day I was socializing with a group of folks at a local
cultural function and there was no lack of good, unadulterated
conversation. There must have been close to 5 or 6 conversations
going on at once, a real “meeting of the minds”, so to speak.One
person in particular made a comment to one of the people at our
table about her make-up choice and color use. Without going into
much detail, I am sure that this is no shock to many of you. I am
sure you know one of those types of people who tend to blurt things
out, not knowing the consequence of how it may affect the person it
is aimed towards. Or do they know the consequences and do they just
not care? Therein lies the question. Well, the person that this
rather rude comment was aimed towards decided not to give that
person the satisfaction or the extra attention that she may have
wanted by acknowledging it. However, it did not go unnoticed by her
or one of her friends. In fact, it was brought up the next day sort
of casually. Those types of statements take gall, which is the focus
of this story. What “unmitigated” gall this person had to make such
a comment. This made me want to further my knowledge on just that
subject.
Unmitigated gall is quite the clichéd phrase. I have heard it many
times and I like using it, but I must confess that I have been
curious as to its true meaning. You'll rarely hear anyone speak of
gall without describing it as unmitigated, and you'll rarely hear
the word unmitigated used to describe anything other than gall. Ever
thought of that? Yes, it is a cliché, however it is inexplicably
apropos. As far as unmitigated gall goes, lets just say that, if the
people who exercise this were even slightly capable of shame or
reflection, that their overweening gall would be mitigated somewhat
by the knowledge that they may have slightly hurt someone’s feelings
or at least caused them to flinch just a bit. Capeche?
According to Irregular Times, an informative website, “A gall is a
nodule that grows on a plant in reaction to the presence of certain
sorts of microbes and insects. Galls are an example of the way that
plants have co-evolved with other living things in order to
accommodate one another. The gall both protects the rest of the
plant from the intruding organism and provides that organism with
food or shelter.” I’m going to let that statement “marinate” with
all of you who read this.
So, I will end with this... My favorite definition for unmitigated
gall that I have found is bold, impudent behavior. Communication is
a powerful too, and it must be used correctly. So, how would you
like your gal, sir? Mitigated or unmitigated? How about an order of
unmitigated gall with a side of sarcasm? Until next month, it’s been
a pleasure serving you.
jjjeanae@yahoo.com
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http://www.irregulartimes.com/gall.html
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