Eric’s Blog

Wil Wheaton has a lot of sayings, I’ll call them Wheaton-isms. One of the biggest Wheaton-isms is dubbed (by him, not me), Wheaton’s law. Wheaton’s law states, “Don’t be a D!ck”. It’s pretty simple actually. Another way to summarize this would be The Golden Rule. It’s amazing to me how many people that don’t know what the Golden rule is. The Golden rule is, “treat others the way you would like to be treated.” I used to tell all my Sailors when they checked in what my expectations were and the Golden rule was a part of that. Some knew what it was, many more did not know it.

Today was a full day. I got my fleet reserve orders today which makes my transfer from active duty officially official. I have mixed feelings about receiving them. Then, there was the boost to my ego hearing that I’d knocked a job interview out of the park yesterday. Finally, someone breaking Wheaton’s law was the last thing that occurred to me before I left work for home.

I asked someone to move a camera in the course of my duties as Range Control Officer , and they said, “no.” Not because what I asked would interfere with what they wanted. It was a power-struggle and this person broke Wheaton’s law in that one moment. Later, I reminded that individual and everyone at the hot wash that if I was unable to see the range was clear visually, and they still wanted to fire, they’d be asking me to accept a huge amount of risk. I like to think that my phrasing of the problem today got everyone’s attention.

Before I got to that eloquent point, I was pissed. I left without saying a word to anyone and I slammed the door on my way out. Childish maybe, but I view it as me ensuring the customer had what they needed and the command was safe; I did my job even though I behaved poorly afterwards.

It takes zero effort to be a decent and kind human being to other human beings. It takes a lot of effort to go out of your way to be a douche. Yet, somehow, people consistently go out of their way, expending energy that need not be used on being douche-nozzles.

I’m a firm believer in getting out of the universe what you put into it. If you’re a jerk, the universe will swing the cosmic hammer of karma your way. If you’re decent, you’ll receive positive energy in kind. Maybe that’s what the Golden rule really means. I know Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but maybe, when people are insufferable prigs, we need to dole out a bit of karma back at them. I wouldn’t suggest stopping so low as to meet their level, but maybe push back on the twats a bit. That’s what I did today. I simply let the individual know without question that I would not assume unnecessary risk based on my determination and I held the authority to tell them to jog-on.

So, a lot of things happened today. Some were good, others were not, and others were mixed. I dealt with some things well, others, not so much. I’ll take the wins where I can.