On the twelve anniversary of my marriage to Lady Karma, Will Smith paid a ten year price to defend his pride for ten seconds. The difficulty of parallel parking increases when more people are watching; the cost of defending your pride increases when more people are watching as well. If this slap happened backstage in a dressing room, we would not be talking about it.
I will admit, I am being somewhat of a Monday morning Quarterback here. I think what Will did was wrong, but I am also guilty of doing stupid stuff at the spurt of the moment just to regret it later. Although it is true that "love will make you do some crazy things", pride will make you do crazier things. We can't get love and pride confused. I have often daydreamed of slapping someone simply because they thought I wouldn't. I never daydream about paying the price for it though.
When you walk into a fight, you have to think of the consequences of that fight even if you know you are going to win. It is easy to speculate that Chris Rock would have been the bad guy if Will Smith would have stayed in his seat. Chris would have been known as someone who may have stepped over the line and Will would have been respected as the one who had restraint. Instead it is now the other way around. I honestly don't think Chris wanted to hurt feelings here. Jada is BEAUTIFUL with or without hair and I am sure Chris knows that.
Pride will also make folks do stupid stuff when they think they are going to get away with it. I am not sure what Will was thinking when he walked off stage, but I hope he did not think he was going to get away with it without any consequences. He is very lucky Chris didn't take him to court, there were millions of witnesses after all.
I hate that this happened. It will be a stain on two great careers in entertainment. Will was once the rapper that never cussed and never said the "N" word in his songs. Now he will be known as the dude that screamed the "F" word to an international audience. Chris will be known as the comedian that was slapped by Will.
What are the consequences of swallowing your pride? Yes, if someone walked up to Lady Karma and called her a Bitch, I would love to beat them until my knuckles bled. However, I don't think Lady Karma would want me to go to jail for it. I didn't marry a Bitch...Lady Karma knows she is not a Bitch. I highly doubt Will is chillin' at home thinking "that was soooooo worth it" as his future movie deals are dwindling and his endorsements are evaporating. I was looking forward to Bad Boys 4.
If anything, I have learned from this. It is good to have pride but it is bad to defend it when it is not necessary. Sometimes the thought of knowing you can kick someone's ass should be comfort enough than just...you know...kicking their ass. Sometimes you have to just look at folks and say, "you are not worth the jail time for what I will do to you."
No one has been arrested for walking away from a fight. Allow me refer to a quote from one of the best movies of the 90's Pulp Fiction:
"The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. Fuck pride! Pride only hurts, it never helps."
Oh, and for the record...G.I. Jane is a GREAT movie.