I believe you believe you are right.

I’ve been wrong, lots of times. There I’ve said it. Didn’t hurt me. The house didn’t fall down around my ears and as far as I know it didn’t cost me any major limbs or organs saying it.

So why to do some people have such an issue with it? Even when they are roundly and soundly proven wrong? These people do not react well to being told they are wrong, let alone have anything taken out of their control. You just know it is going to be hitting the fan on dinosaur poop vs. jumbo jet engine extractor fan levels. Of course all you have done is happen to be right, but that simply won’t wash, will it? Why is it some people become so convinced of themselves to be actually proven wrong means they will proceed directly to the full blown declaration of war? Many times on the person who had to put up with their acid tripping version of reality in the first place?

I have seen some legendary trippers in my time, we all know the kind. So convinced of their own righteousness in the big scheme of things, you know you are expected to wait patiently until your opinion is given to you courtesy of your most recent, convinced of their own perfect selves people in your lives. Telling others what, where and when is their god given right, your having a life becomes irrelevant, and to some extent a minor annoyance to some people. To voice complaint, question or not obey is an instant ticket to dramas, harsh words and in some cases enough harassing SMS’s and mobile phone calls you end up changing your phone number just for a bit of peace and quiet.

Of course your first option is to proceed to the first impulse, which is telling these people precisely where to go, how to get there, and what to do when they get there. With most of your suggestions probably requiring an emergency room, or involving their forth coming spectacular and painful death. But unfortunately our beloved trippers only see this as encouragement to further upset your day by reminding you they still have a pulse when they insist on sending the same childish text message over and over again. You’d think they would work it out. If we didn’t answer the first time, chances are we are not going to answer the sixth time either.

So onto my favourite response when dealing with people who tend to live in Tripperville. Like all two year olds they thrive on attention. So complete and utter silence is sometimes more powerful and than verbally and / or physically feeding the trippers through the above mentioned jumbo jet engine to get your message across.

While I make sure I remember I should try to forgive and forget, there is nothing in the rules that says I can’t remove any chance of some of my favourite trippers ever wasting my time again. Changing phone numbers is a relatively quick and easy task, thus freeing me up nicely to add yet another entry to my list of reasons why cattle prods should be made legal in the burbs.