My best friend Jenny James has always told me I have the teeth of the hydra.* She said that means I give folks a lot of chances before "going all hydra" and putting people in their place.
"I am amazed at the [crap] you will put up with before you just tear someone apart point by point," she said. "And once the teeth of the hydra come out, it's ON."
Jenny makes being a many-headed sea monster sound acceptable, almost like being a ninja.
Admittedly, I do like to store up a laundry list of someone's past transgressions before unleashing via bulleted email. More than once, I've typed a diatribe to someone and then immediately forwarded it to Jenny with the simple subject line of "hydra." No need to read the email. That one word sums up all the paragraphs contained within. "Hydra" is also a shorthand way to describe any occasion in which someone gets a dressing down. As in, "Oh, Momma went ALL hydra on that waitress at Chili's last night. You shoulda seen it!"
Admittedly, I do like to store up a laundry list of someone's past transgressions before unleashing via bulleted email. More than once, I've typed a diatribe to someone and then immediately forwarded it to Jenny with the simple subject line of "hydra." No need to read the email. That one word sums up all the paragraphs contained within. "Hydra" is also a shorthand way to describe any occasion in which someone gets a dressing down. As in, "Oh, Momma went ALL hydra on that waitress at Chili's last night. You shoulda seen it!"
Jenny gave me a hydra incense burner for my birthday a few years ago and took great pains to glue extra big teeth on the many-headed monster. When you light the incense, it breathes smoke out of its many mouths. Probably my favorite birthday present ever.
While I do recognize the need for clearing the air when a situation warrants it, I try not to go all hydra more than once or twice a year. As Jenny says, "Sometimes, all you gotta do is just show a little hydra fang and they back off."
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