Earlier this week as a Jet Blue flight was taxiing to a terminal a flight attendant apparently flew (get it?) into a rage, swore at a passenger, repeated his verbal assault over the aircraft’s PA system, grabbed a couple of beers and exited the plane via one of the emergency chutes.

Within 24 hours his escapade (clever pun, heh?) had landed (I can’t help myself) on every news broadcast on the planet and his new, temporary career as a celebrity took off (stop it) into the stratosphere.

The media couldn’t get enough of this guy and he was reportedly showered with support from all over the world.

He was, at different times, labelled a “hero” and a “role model” for standing up for the little people who have had enough.

He was instantly transformed into the metaphor to which every one of us can relate. The superhero who, after suffering years of abuse, was just not going to take it anymore.

And so he didn’t take it.

Instead, he lost it.

Now we have all had days like that. Days where we have felt the compelling urge to choke the living daylights out of some *^^%@#! who surely deserves it.

Days where perhaps we have had enough of hearing that annoying recording telling us to “please stay on the line, your call is important to us” after listening to it for the thirty-third time during our 45 minute timeout on hold.

Or when the sales clerk in the store cannot answer our question because she needs to continue her phone conversation with Chelsea about what a loser Jude is.

Or when your boss, the one with a PhD in micromanagement, comes into your office for the eighteenth time in an hour to ask how you’re doing on the McKinney file.

Or when the light turns green and you can’t make the left turn because the moron blocking the intersection couldn’t check to ensure that he could clear the intersection before proceeding through it and then he looks at you and gestures to the car in front of him, which did clear the intersection, as if to let you know that it is really not his fault that he was born with the brain power of a doorknob.

Or the client who believes that the fee they paid for your services was actually payment in full for your soul and that they can call any time, day or night, with a list of demands which will immediately be met.

Yes, we’ve all had days (weeks, months, years) like that.

But we don’t choke anybody.

We don’t swear over a public PA system.

We don’t activate emergency equipment.

We don‘t take the phone away from the salesclerk and flush it.

We don’t punch our boss in the mouth.

We don’t ram our car into the moron’s.

We don‘t hire a hit man to pay our client a visit.

We’ve talked about this a lot.

Stuff happens all the time that is outside of our control.

It is what it is.

How it affects us is completely within our control.

And how we respond is determined by the choices we make.

And we fully control the choices we make.

And what he did was make a very poor choice.

He was frustrated. That too is a choice

And it does not justify what he did. 

He’s not a hero.

He’s not a role model.

He’s a schmuck.

He doesn’t need fame.

He doesn’t need acclaim.

He needs something far more elementary.

A chill pill.

And a lesson in how to make better choices.

I know of a book he should read.

Perhaps you can order it from the link below and send it to him.

Click here to order a copy of my book Life Sinks or Soars – the choice is yours

Till we read again.