There are times when you are going to step in it. That you will be distracted enough to do it is inevitable. You have things to do and places to go. You are in a hurry, and there are those annoying events that frequently pop up to rob you of some of your precious time. Stepping in it is one of those annoying events. The one thing you can count on is that you will do it at a time that will magnify its negative impact. If that were not the case, you would not be distracted enough to let it happen. Regardless of this fact, people rarely blame their inattentiveness for this event. Instead, they go right to the source. They blame the dog.
“The son of a bitch did not have anything else he had to do. He had all day to plan on where he was going to drop his load. Why did he take a dump right where I walk.”
A person asking that question is thinking like a human. I do the same thing. At least I like to think I do. This means that I cannot speak for your dog. The one thing I do know about dogs is that they use their urine and dung to mark their territories. You would think that marking the boundaries would be good enough but it is not. Some creatures will either ignore the markings or enter the territory from a point not marked. So dogs add reminders within their territories. Marking territory is a serious business.
When it comes to recognizing territories we humans are at a disadvantage. We cannot detect dried urine unless there is a very high concentration of it. While we can see and smell a pile of crap, it is often difficult for us to determine what territory it marks. Determining human boundaries is not any easier for us. This is because many of those human boundaries are emotional rather than physical. Yet we must have retained some primitive instinct in regard to marking them. I believe this because we will say we pissed someone off or stepped in the shit when we have upset another person by crossing an emotional line. Our reaction to figuratively stepping in this shit is very similar to our reaction to literally stepping in shit. What I mean is that we rarely blame our inattentiveness or hasty actions for it. In this regard our apologies are normally peace offerings rather than admissions of guilt, and the other person usually responds in kind.
Other primates will let you know when you have crossed their boundaries by throwing shit at you. We do much the same thing. A warning shot thrown across the bow is not a problem. Most people are smart enough to heed the warning. The real problem occurs when the shit thrown is no longer a warning and it strikes the other person. The person struck is all too likely to respond by also throwing shit. It is still possible to restore the peace at this point, but it requires both parties to stop throwing shit at each other. A truce is always the first step to any peaceful resolution.
If the dispute takes place in public, it is far less likely that either party will make any peace overtures. Instead they will both insist that they were right, and they will try to convince the witnesses of that. Being a social animal makes us far too inclined to play to the audience. The witnesses, however, are a reluctant audience at best. They may be more sympathetic to one party than the other, but they would rather not take sides. They are much more inclined to call the dispute a misunderstanding that has become far too messy as it is. In most instances they are correct in saying this.
What we call pissing contests or throwing shit at each other is never pretty. If the disputing parties are throwing shit at each other on twitter, the British are very likely to call them twitter twits. If the disputing parties are throwing shit at each other on face book, we Americans are likely to call those face books ass books. If you must have a dispute with a friend, have it in private. E-mail each other or shout at each other over the phone. Then forgive and forget. Remember that the other person is a friend you have frequently invited into your territory rather than an invader who has set out to destroy your boundaries. Friends can disagree with each other.
First published in macsbackporch.foxtail-farms on Apr. 6, 2010
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