zingers

Have you ever seen "You've Got Mail"? I'm reminded of that one scene when Kathleen and Joe are arguing and it gets kind of heated and he fires a zinger that leaves her speechless. And later that night they have this IM conversation (when they don't know who is who...or at least, she doesn't know he's the same guy) and she's talking about how she wishes she had that ability to say what she wanted to say when she wanted to say it.

It amazes me that some people have that ability to pull that card from their back pocket. That they can just pull the trigger and know exactly what to say to hit you where it hurts and walk away. And like Meg Ryan in the movie, I sometimes wish I too had that ability to whip something out when it counts and just fire something away that would leave them speechless, instead of being the one who stands there lost.

But as she finds later in the movie when she finally does say something that hurts him...after the brief euphoria of feeling vinidicated, she feels really really bad about it. Because in the end, it's not nice to hurt someone, even if they're not your friend. And if they are...then it sucks even more. At least, it does to me.

So in the end - is it better to be the person who fired the perfect line and "won"? The one who gets to storm out and get the other person to crumble? Or is it better to be the one who crumbles?

Joe: It wasn't... personal.
Kathleen: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me.