My family lives and breathes martial arts. Most of our trips abroad are made with the purpose of attending some kind of martial arts seminar. Our 2014 trip to the Philippines, was no different. We spent almost a month in Cebu training under Cacoy Canete – one of the most famous martial artists in the Filipino martial art of Eskrima.
As a whole, I really liked Cebu. The food was great, and the people were extremely friendly. People on the street would always smile and greet us, even though we were complete strangers to them. And all the training we did under Cacoy Canete truly enriched me as a person. But this is not what my story is about. No, it’s about something that happened at the place we were staying in.
We (me, my mom, my stepdad, and a friend of ours) were staying at an Airbnb close to where we were training. Our days consisted of intense training, so each night was a great time to relax and unwind.
It was on one fateful night that I decided to go to bed early. But just as I was dozing off to sleep, I heard a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream. It was my mom! I was sure of it – she used to be an opera singer, and she has a very distinctive voice.
Immediately after that, I heard running and a great commotion, followed by my stepdad and our friend shouting “Get her! Smash her! F*** her up!”, all while my mother was screaming!
I quickly got up and rushed out the door. What I saw was my mother standing on top of a table, screaming at the top of her lungs. Meanwhile, my stepdad was holding a broom, while our friend was holding a dustpan, and they were frantically running around the living room, smashing at something on the floor.
And the reason for all of this madness? They were chasing a tiny mouse, no bigger than 3 inches. And it was giving them a run for their money!
And just as I was about to join in the fray, the mouse slipped into a tiny crevasse, never to be seen again.
Obviously, my mother was shaken. She’s a brave woman, but mice are just something she can’t handle. She installed an app on her phone that played a sound that was supposed to drive away rodents.
Maybe it worked because we never saw that mouse again. But I think the more likely reason for that was because that poor animal died of a heart attack! I mean, picture this – you’re a normal mouse, just minding your own business. When suddenly, you hear the most high-pitched scream you’ve ever heard in your life! And as if that wasn’t enough, two giants – the biggest giants you’ve ever seen in your life – start coming after you, wanting to “f*** you up”!
I guess the moral of this story is that sometimes if you can empathize with the other person’s point of view, you can gain a new perspective on the issue, and even resolve it. Because what really helped my Mom calm down was after we talked to her about it, and helped her realize that that poor mouse was a lot more afraid of us than we were of it!
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by Velin Dragoev
Keen Fighter – https://keenfighter.com/
