I was subjected to a ten minute tirade yesterday about a thermostat, "that old grey headed bobble headed baboon" a hot room, and no one will do anything, etc. Today I was told that I have a chip on my shoulder by someone who has been complainging for days about their room being HOT. So I spoke with the workers at this place about the room being hot and ask if they could do something about it once I found out the room had its own thermostat. Today I called the person to see if their comfort level was better. Since there happened to be a worker in the room at the time I spoke with the worker to see if things were better. Before the phone was hung up I heard the person who lives in the room tell the worker "Maybe she is satisfied now." It kind of hit me the wrong way after yesterdays tirade. I called right back and explained to that person that it was not me who needed to be satisfied and neither was it me who I was trying to help be satisfied. Then the person told me I had a chip on my shoulder. I am pretty sure this is something she was repeating that someone else had said. This person repeats things she hears others say!!! It seems no matter what you do to try to help someone, if that person is not happy then nothing you do will help them. It’s a strange expression – chip on your shoulder – and it has a rich history. According to Wikipedia it dates back to the Royal Navy Dockyards and a requirement for shipwrights to carry timber chips under their arms rather than on their shoulders because they could carry more that way. The story goes that one shipwright (John Miller) refused and the Master Shipwright ordered him to lower the chips and tried to physically force him to do so. Miller and others pushed the Master and First Assistant out of the gateway while keeping the chips on their shoulders. The expression eventually came to mean an attitude that denotes a challenge when disagreeing on a matter and daring ‘the other person’ to refute them. In my experience, saying “that person has a chip on his shoulder” is one of those statements we say to or about someone who appears to be defensive, angry, bitter, resentful, bearing a grudge, a victim, and so on. ( This seems to describe the person I happened to be trying to help) That is, we may become aware of such emotions in a conversation when people verbally express these sorts of sentiments or by their demeanour, such as tone of voice or body and facial language. Seeing and communicating with someone whom we determine has a chip on their shoulder can be challenging. After all, it can be off-putting and difficult to know how to connect and may even precipitate and exacerbate conflict. This is the kind of wind you remove your sails out of!!!!
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 18:39:46 +0000
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