How Mature...A Parable for Modern Times

Much of what I have to say is true.  I may elaborate some situations, but for the most part this is a small autobiographical sketch of a short period of my life.  Should you find some parable for modern times (i.e. Congress/President) in here that is completely coincidental.  Names (except my own) will be changed but the descriptions are more often than not quite accurate as I remember them.


In the mid '90's I was in high school.  I was opinionated to the point of my own peril.  I would often argue with people just to have an argument...or just to "prove" that I was right and they were wrong.

I eventually met my match.  Let's call this person Jane (all anonymous females are called Jane..I wonder why that is???).  Jane was just as opinionated as I was, and our opinions were often in direct conflict.  Whether or not we really disagreed was not the point....We just felt it our solemn duty to argue and drive everyone crazy.

We were especially vocal in one particular class.  I fear that we monopolized this class.  The class was intended to teach an academic subject, and we would argue on inconsequential issues.  I suppose we detracted somewhat, if not a lot from the issues that were really important.

Our arguments ranged from stupid things such as the best Pro Football team to our opinions on a variety of inconsequential "high school" issues.  This was not just a chance to argue...we were truly mean to one another.  All of the arguments included personal attacks on the other's character.

Looking back, I see that none of this had anything to do with "the price of rice in China."  We were just 2 stubborn teenagers who always had to be right...even when we were wrong.

Our senior year of high school, a change happened.  We realized that if we unified our opinions and arguments we could control the tenor of the class.  So, we would stage arguments where we were not actually mad at each other, but we would argue none the less.  I suppose it was attention seeking behavior.

Did anything get solved by our arguing?  Well, we annoyed a lot of people, hurt each other's feelings, and drove the teacher crazy.  But, when we unified our talent for arguing, it was amazing how the situation changed.  Now, we were the "entertainment" of the class.  But more importantly, we were no longer seeing the other as "evil" or "bad."  We saw the other as a partner.  Of course we didn't agree on everything, but we saw the value in the other person's opinion.  When we did disagree, we did it as friends.

Again, what you've read is a short autobiographical sketch.  Take it for what you will.