Stop making foul calls

I'm reminded today of Kris years ago telling me about an on-field confrontation between two top women ultimate players. The two women played on rival teams; the game they were playing in was being played intensely, each point fought tooth and nail.

The one woman was putting on a particularly hard mark, and the other one as thrower called foul when the marker fouled her. The marker said, "No contest," and play restarted.

After a few pivots, the thrower called foul again, and play stopped. No contest, play restarted.

This continued for a few more foul calls, until the marker cried out in exasperation, "Stop making foul calls!"

To which the thrower calmly responded, "Stop fouling me."

I remembered this story today, when I overheard a conversation where one person said, "Yeah, stop talking shit about me." I could help but think, "Well, stop being a shit, and people will stop talking shit about you." Same thing with crazy: stop acting crazy, and people will stop calling you crazy.

Seemed simple enough to me.

If only it were so obvious to some other people.

• Log in to read full content