DON'T LET IT GO TO YOUR HEAD

It's 6:29 p.m. and Patrick is here with me, resting on his afghan at my feet..

Drizzely and miserable all day.

During my business career, at times I had as many as two hundred people under my command.

Coming from humble origins, and putting my time in as a laborer, I learned to be Fair, Firm, and Friendly. I was generally successful with this methodology.

Some people, however, once they get a little taste of authority, become mean and nasty just for the fun of it, apparently. They get full of themselves. We had a buddy in the Army that got promoted to Sergeant. So that meant he was a non-com, had to drink at the non-com club and generally hang out with other non-coms instead of us lower pukes. That's OK, we understood that. But overnite this guy all of a sudden started throwing his weight around, like he was far superior to us and we were slime under his boots. He had no direct authority over us, but he did outrank us. I thought the behavior to be curious. He wasn't planning on being a lifer, so what was the point? The point was he got real full of himself and lost sight of what is important, and decent.

He became a jerk. But he was young, so you can excuse it. But what about seasoned adults, who get some little power over others, and start to act like jerks? I'm not talking about meting out discipline or giving hard orders--I'm talking about acting haughty and committing radoms acts of cruelty. I've never liked those guys, but unfortunately you meet them all the time, whether it's at work, church, club or even on internet forums. It's really a shame. Got to feel sorry for them, eh? Pathetic.

-30-