I’m still exhausted. I want to go back on the record to say I was opposed to the method used to resolve the conflict between Olivia and Chas. It was intimidating just walking into the room. No one knew what to expect and the air was filled with a deathly quiet. I wanted to scream just to break the tension. Instead I sat and looked into the faces of everyone. Olivia sat tense like waiting for the sentence of the judge.
The resolution mob attack began with Chas saying, “I still want her to leave my things alone.” Olivia responded by asking what he said. He has a very loud voice. As each piece was repeated she said I heard that. So why… forget it, who cares.
The initial 10-15 minutes was rather innocuous, then Sylvia spoke and all (what’s that word people use) broke loose. She clearly had an agenda and she went at Chas in a way designed to hurt without mentioning is name. I kept waiting for the moderator to put the clamps on as we had agreed there would be no personal attacks. But Chas handled it himself. He left.
Gail and I were both disappointed, but Sylvia was regurgitating an issue most of us, and especially Chas, believed was solved. Both Gail and I defended his departure as the only way he could not explode and say things he would not regret. Then Olivia with Sylvia and one of their cohorts began a three-hour tirade on Chas. I was afraid of this.
Early in the runaway, uncontrolled battle of the bulge, I was accused of believing people can change and told how wrong I was. I laughed and had to wait until that load of verbal diarrhea ended before I could attempt to clean up the mess. Neither Olivia nor Sylvia believes anyone can change. I glanced at Gail and both knew there would never be a resolution, but we plowed ahead. I restated the matter and mentioned I believed this meeting was futile. Resolution is impossible if neither party was willing to make any changes. If people cannot change what happens when they learn something new? We change to incorporate that new knowledge. I did not mention the offensive language that God can change a heart, but I spent 37 years of my life with that concept as the foundation of my occupation. If a minister doesn’t believe that they are in the wrong place.
No amount of talking led the two principles to do anything but raise the ante of their explosion. At that point I sat back and listened just to see how far they would go. I visibly showed disgust when he was accused of lengthy expressions of profanity and sexual language directed at women. I had never heard anything of this kind. I could not believe what I was hearing. I was shocked. If this is true why I had never even heard of murmur in this gossip filled place. If this were true why was this the first time it had ever been addressed.
After three hours I could not take it any longer. My bladder was about to burst. I left to resolve that issue and decided not to return. Thirty-minutes later Gail left and it was still going. With us gone they were free to have a group rant and preach to the choir.
Gail and I went to check on Chas and ask some very difficult questions. In the course of the debate I had just left, I hear three comments of Olivia’s that I knew to be lies. I now believe these latter accusations are pure fiction. It appears that the group plans to do anything they can to get Chas evicted.
The fat lady has not sung and this is far from over. There will be more.
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