just a few questions...
1. Imagine two people intent on fist-fighting. Maybe that time in high school in the quad where two people were squaring up. Are you the type who steps in and tries to intervene?
if you would, at this point the only consequence is perhaps a black eye, bruises or welts.
2. suppose they had knives. would you still step in? what if they were two people who you had some vested interest in? the outcome actually now is of importance to your own physical wellbeing?
now the risks are greater, but the outcome being key to your survival, you have little choice, right? with a history of violence in the area being periphery, maybe you've armed yourself. maybe you're the toughest kid on the block and have defensive gear. maybe having you as a defensive ally makes the difference between the encounter.
your jugular is exposed, all the same.
... they're obviously out for blood.
and no amount of verbal technique you have can make the Montagues and Capulets agree on a 1400 year old dispute.
shit, you only have few words between the two of you that make sense. good translators are hard to find these days, you know. understandings hard to reach and all.
(whether or not you borrowed numbers and oil from them)
and last time you stepped in you made it a living hell for the involved parties and the entire neighborhood for god/allah knows how long.
hey, you even trained up cousins and uncles and other family members alongside these two factions last time around
you gave 'em spare switch-blades and billy clubs and maybe an underground explosive or two
but years later, they got up to mischief that spilled out onto vaguely interconnected cities around the contested territory
some even left a pipe-bomb in your garage and killed a few of your favorite family pets
causing you to become paranoid of even your own family members, snooping through their emails and texts and following them on twitter looking for certain keywords or phrases
what should you do this time?
Maybe this time walking away from a grudge match a century and a half in the making is an option?
