Pierre and Boudreaux was flying Cajun Airlines.
Boudreaux was flying da plane and Pierre was in da back foolin wit da cargo equipment an stuff.
Suddenly da plane hit some turbulence an started bouncing around an Boudreaux da pilot got knock unconcience… Den da plane started driftin’.
Pierre him come runnin’ up to da front an Boudreaux was sprawl out over da steerin’ wheel. Well, Pierre don’t know no-ting bout flyin no plane and he start to get pan-a-key!
He grab da microphone and holla “May Day! May Day! Dis is Cajun Air Line 10210. Boudreaux him knock unconscience an I don’t know no-ting bout flyin dis here plane!”
“Dis is da control tower,” someone answer Pierre. “Don you worry about nutin. We gonna splain how fo you to land dat plane, step-by-easy step, ah gar-on-tee! Jus leave arythin ta us. Fus thing, how high are you and what’s you position?”
Pierre thought a minute, den say, “I’m five foot ten and I’m all da way to da front of da plane.”
“No! No!” answer da tower. “What’s you altitude and where’s you location?”
Pierre say, “Man ah got a po attitude, and I’m from Thibodaux, Looseeana!”
“No! No! No!” came an exasperated voice. “Ah needs to know how many feet you got off da ground and how you plane’s in relation to da airport!”
Pierre start to panic by dis time. He say, “Countin Boudreaux’s and mine we got four feet off da ground and I don’t believe dis plane’s related to you airport!”
A long pause… Ok, then we needs ta know who you next of kin and where to send da flowers…”
I have spoken to many people in the last decades or so who have this type of conversation. It's like we're not on the same wave length or speaking the same language... or playing different games.
Randy Ingermanson has a wonderful article in his newsletter about that very thing. I had not noticed before just how people "play games" so they can win simply because they change the rules, or they change the game. For instance hubby comes home and wifey starts immediately to complain about children, work problems, house problems. Hubby picks up the garbage and takes it out. Hubby won that round because he didn't buy into wifey's game.
Randy was talking about characters in a book, but we all know that people do this to us continuously because they do not want to face what we are presenting. You get checked out at the grocery store immediately because the cashier and you want the same thing: groceries checked out and you on your way.
However, when Mom wants the teenager's bedroom cleaned we have an impasse because the teen knows where all the sweatshirts are under the bed and doesn't care if they are dirty or clean. The teen knows exactly how many "in a minute, Mom" statements he can get away with before A. Mom rattles his chain or B. Sends Dad to get the bottom off the bed. Because Mom has the authority over how much food is in the fridge and dad has the keys to the car, the teen will, in time, play the same game... eventually.
This is great conflict for a novel, but in real life it is most frustrating.
Question: I'm just wondering what kind of non-game playing frustrates you, and how do you deal with it?
P.S. When you speak in Cajun, you can't run SpellCheck.
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