I call this story, "The Maverick maneuver" after the character "Maverick" in the movie, "Top Gun." In one flying combat scene,
Maverick says to his co-pilot "Goose" that, "I'm gonna bring him in closer--slam on the brakes and he'll fly right by..."
I'm delivering pizza's while waiting for a job opening and like all drivers I am especially enraged when people come right up on your bumper, especially at night with their lights in your eyes. One night, I misjudged the closing distance of a big pick-up truck that was probably speeding anyway and pulled out in front of them. The driver reacted with a fit of road rage and flashed on their bright lights driving about 10 feet from my bumper. I was in a bad mood and was tired of "turning the other cheek" with aggressive drivers, so I decided to safely "engage" this road-rage dude. I started slowing down deliberately but carefully on the two-lane highway to "bring him in closer" so to speak. I then turned on my left turn signal to leave the confrontation. The road-rage driver, as they often do, speeded up and skimmed past my right side almost taking off my rear-view mirror or "flew right by" like in the movie. I saw my opportunity and turned off my blinkers and briefly speeded up behind the angry truck driver and flashed my lights in HIS mirror!! (ok, only for a second now... to make a point) and then I left the highway. I realize this was very dangerous and of course I don't recommend it to anyone, but I believe as Christians that we can not always let angry thug-type people walk all over us--in fact it can be a sin not to stand up for ourselves against abusive and verbally abusive people (safely and with the right support of course--) or not to stand up for vulnerable people who are being abused in some way. Needless to say, after 10 years of letting abusive employers kick me around and abusive drivers intimidate me, the "maverick maneuver" made me feel really, really good inside... Standing up to abusive people in person with humble, peaceful assertiveness, can often be required of us as Christians to protect ourselves or vulnerable people. Just don't use road-rage to do it like I did--it's just one of those things that happened and I got lucky.
So, you might wonder why I put this in a relationship room?? Well, humble, peaceful assertiveness can go a long way to bring peace and healing to a relationship.
Also, theres a funny end to the story-- I like this receptionist gal and one day she called me "babe" so I thought she might be interested in me. So, I told her my "Maverick maneuver" story and she enjoyed it. I'm kind of a "Maverick" myself and was feeling pretty cocky and confident so I called her and asked her to lunch. I was thinking, "this lunch date thing is a done deal..." Ladies have a way of humbling us presumptous guys and she just said, "um...they don't let us have lunch here...it's kinda a working lunch, you know? But thanks for asking...."
Well, that's enough about that lunch date story, if you know what I mean....
Harry
Maverick says to his co-pilot "Goose" that, "I'm gonna bring him in closer--slam on the brakes and he'll fly right by..."
I'm delivering pizza's while waiting for a job opening and like all drivers I am especially enraged when people come right up on your bumper, especially at night with their lights in your eyes. One night, I misjudged the closing distance of a big pick-up truck that was probably speeding anyway and pulled out in front of them. The driver reacted with a fit of road rage and flashed on their bright lights driving about 10 feet from my bumper. I was in a bad mood and was tired of "turning the other cheek" with aggressive drivers, so I decided to safely "engage" this road-rage dude. I started slowing down deliberately but carefully on the two-lane highway to "bring him in closer" so to speak. I then turned on my left turn signal to leave the confrontation. The road-rage driver, as they often do, speeded up and skimmed past my right side almost taking off my rear-view mirror or "flew right by" like in the movie. I saw my opportunity and turned off my blinkers and briefly speeded up behind the angry truck driver and flashed my lights in HIS mirror!! (ok, only for a second now... to make a point) and then I left the highway. I realize this was very dangerous and of course I don't recommend it to anyone, but I believe as Christians that we can not always let angry thug-type people walk all over us--in fact it can be a sin not to stand up for ourselves against abusive and verbally abusive people (safely and with the right support of course--) or not to stand up for vulnerable people who are being abused in some way. Needless to say, after 10 years of letting abusive employers kick me around and abusive drivers intimidate me, the "maverick maneuver" made me feel really, really good inside... Standing up to abusive people in person with humble, peaceful assertiveness, can often be required of us as Christians to protect ourselves or vulnerable people. Just don't use road-rage to do it like I did--it's just one of those things that happened and I got lucky.
So, you might wonder why I put this in a relationship room?? Well, humble, peaceful assertiveness can go a long way to bring peace and healing to a relationship.
Also, theres a funny end to the story-- I like this receptionist gal and one day she called me "babe" so I thought she might be interested in me. So, I told her my "Maverick maneuver" story and she enjoyed it. I'm kind of a "Maverick" myself and was feeling pretty cocky and confident so I called her and asked her to lunch. I was thinking, "this lunch date thing is a done deal..." Ladies have a way of humbling us presumptous guys and she just said, "um...they don't let us have lunch here...it's kinda a working lunch, you know? But thanks for asking...."
Well, that's enough about that lunch date story, if you know what I mean....
Harry
