I wish Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco

According to Miss Stephanie Crawford... Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him. Miss Stephanie said Atticus didn’t bat an eye, just took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and stood there and let Mr. Ewell call him names wild horses could not bring her to repeat. Too proud to fight?’ inquired Mr. Ewell. Miss Stephanie said Atticus said, “No, too old,” put his hands in pockets and strolled on. Miss Stephanie said you had to hand it to Atticus Finch, he could be right dry sometimes.” Later when explaining his actions to his son Jem, Atticus says, “Jem, see if you stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some sort of comeback. So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved his daughter one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take. You understand?”

From: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, 1960



While not universally so, as there are times when a fight is completely appropriate and justified, that a more carefully measured response to aggression sometimes brings a more effective and desirable result.

The hard part for me, is figuring out, given any circumstance, which approach will be felicitous and which will not. When I was very young, I hoped to be much wiser than I am now -- especially at my age. However, finding the right answers may be more of a stochastic process and according to  principles of the random walk theory, I should eventually run into them. So there's that.