The one thing I can't stand

             I looked at him.   He looked at me.  I could see he was smoldering but I didn't care.  He wanted to let me have it, but this time I was going to get my words in first and I wasn't going to stop until I was done!  I was sick and tired of his bigotry and intolerance.

             "I am really tired of your judgmental attitude.  If someone doesn't agree 100% with you, then you label them as wrong.  You think you're better than everyone else.  You think you're smarter than everyone else.  I'm not going to put up with that anymore.  You need to learn that other people have a right to their own opinions."

             He kept trying to talk, but I was shouting him down.  What made him think what he had to say was more important than what I had to say?  It was always like that.  But not this time.  This time he was going to hear me if I had to get a bullhorn and put it next to his ear.

             "How can someone with so many wrong views think they are so right?  Can't you see how ridiculous you are being?  You are so narrow-minded.  Has it ever occurred to you that other people might be right and you might be wrong?  Probably not!  Well, I know one thing:  you are totally in the wrong here.  You need to open your eyes and see what everyone else sees.  You know I'm right - you just won't admit it."

             "And another thing:  you are totally incapable of compromise.  If you don't get 100% agreement, you're not satisfied.  Well, I won't be satisfied until you learn the meaning of real compromise.  You need to learn to care about the other person and really listen to what they are saying.  But you're not capable of that, are you?  No - you just go on and on with your one-sided opinion and never let the person get a word in edgewise."

             I was on a roll now.  He was getting red in the face.  Maybe he was hearing what I had to say for the first time.  Maybe not.  I didn't care - I was going to say what I needed to say!  "If there's one thing I can't stand, it's intolerance!  And you are the most intolerant, inflexible, dogmatic person I know.  I'm done putting up with your one-sidedness. 

             I looked him straight in the eyes.  He looked straight back.  How could he think he was so right and I was wrong?  I knew I was in the right here.  It was obvious.  Only an idiot couldn't see how wrong he was and it was time I talked some sense into him. 

             "You know what?  If you won't compromise, then neither will I.  I will not tolerate your narrow-minded 'my-way-or-the-highway' thinking.  If you can't see how wrong you are, then I'm gone - our friendship is over.  You're such a hypocrite."

             I still wasn't going to let him get a word in edgewise.  "And you know what?  If everyone was like you, we'd spend all our time arguing and yelling and never listening.  Can you imagine what that would be like?  Of course not - you can't think about anything but yourself.  All you do is put labels on people.  Can't you see how wrong you are?  You never put yourself in the other person's shoes.  You never even give other people's views a second thought.  You boil everything down to your stupid little catch phrases, as if that settled it.  Well, I've got news for you:  it isn't that simple!"

             Now I pointed my finger right up to his face.  I was really heated.  He pointed right back.  Nothing gets my blood pressure up like people pointing in my face.  "You are the most obstinate person I've ever met," I literally shouted.  We were face to face now, ready to come to blows.  "Well - are you going to admit it?  Are you going to admit that you are wrong and I am right?  Say it!"  It was time to drop the mic.  "Or are you going to persist in your rigid, inflexible, narrow-minded, bigoted, hypocritical, totally biased, uncompromising, opinionated, ridiculous intolerance?  Say it or I'm done!"

             I glared at him.  He glared back.  I said nothing.  He said nothing.  I waited for some glimmer - some recognition on his face that he was in the wrong - but there was nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  I wasn't going to budge this time.  Silence.  He just glared back.  His lips were sealed.  Silence.  More silence.  It was starting to get a bit awkward.

             And that's when I realized that what they say is true:  it's no use arguing with a mirror!