Five Minute Friday - Opposite

One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

opposites attract

equal and opposite reaction

quite the opposite

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This week I made a request to transfer funds from one of our accounts to an investment account, same way I'd done it several times before. Yesterday evening I checked on it and the reply to my message confirmed that they were transferring the money from the investment account to my bank. Wait, that's the exact OPPOSITE of what I asked! I reread my request to see if I'd been unclear or made a mistake in how I worded it. I couldn't see how it could have been misconstrued, so that meant I had to get in touch with the company to and tell them they'd done it wrong and straighten it out so the money went where I wanted it to.

It was a little upsetting, but I wasn't really angry. More exasperated. But it also wans't a very large amount of money and I figured it would be relatively easy to resolve. And it was. A phone call, an apology, and the company fixed the transaction. I could have called and been angry and nasty to them, but what would be the point of that? I wonder though, would I have been as calm about it if it had been a larger dollar amount or had caused an account to be overdrawn or something like that? I expect I would have freaked out but I hope I would have been reasonable and polite when I called.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. ~Newton's Third Law of Motion

Most of the time, even when things don't go the way we planned, it's not the exact opposite. It's often tempting to have a disproportionate reaction of anger to small annoyances. Or to exacerbate a situation by raging or seeking revenge on someone who we think has wronged us. Proverbs offers us a word of wisdom in how to diffuse and handle tense situations.

A gentle answer turns away wrath,

but a harsh word stirs up anger.

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict,

but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.

~Proverbs 15:1, 18~

Often the best way to settle a dispute is to the opposite of what we feel like doing. Instead of escalating with yelling or rage, we can try doing the opposite - a humble and patient response that seeks a real solution and reconciliation.

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This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Opposite".

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