Wind Your Watch

Please keep this podcast around for the next time you get so OUTRAGED that you're tempted to do something you'll regret. "Wind your watch" Mike said...between clenched teeth. Mike was my first flight instructor all those decades ago. His teeth were clenched because I had the plane stalled. It was pointed straight down and it was starting to spin, and I was reaching like a mad man for buttons and switches and pulling on levers...instead of THINKING.
Mike was teaching me a pilot saying that goes: "When you notice that one wing just fell off, the first thing to do is to wind your watch." It's a reminder that it's not a good idea to just throw a bunch of switches and pull a lot of levers until you take a breath, and actually understand what needs to be done...THEN DO IT.
Remembering to wind your watch is one way to break the momentum of fear, and it gives you a chance to get things back under reasoned control. It was a hard lesson well learned. Thanks Mike. Mike probably had to wind his watch at least ten times to keep from just grabbing the controls that day.
I think we're at a "Wind your watch" time in America right now. This never was, isn't now, and never will be a political podcast. I don't like politics. I mentioned a few podcasts ago, that "Politics" is a "Fortune cookie word." You can break open a fortune cookie word, and read the message inside. Break the word "Politics" apart and you get "Poli" which means many, and "Ticks" which are small blood sucking insects. In many cases the message inside the word politics fits lots of folks in Washington very well.