5-year rule

Marcus: If something will still remain important five years later, then it's important enough to get mad about.

Marcus: Somebody cuts me off in traffic, should I let it stress me out, drive my BP up, ruin my minute? Much less my day?

Marcus: Now, when my girl starts trying to talk to me about her conditions of servitude, is *that* gonna be important five years later? Damn skippy, it is, if I don't stomp it like an ugly bug Right Now. Get the difference?

This statement from Master was prompted by an incident that had happened a couple days before this conversation took place. Shayla had told him something she was having trouble with, and Master offered his help. More out of stupid, stubborn pride than anything else, shayla refused him out-right, told him flat, 'no'. Bad mistake on her part. Shortly afterwards she was the recipient of her first scolding from him. It left her in tears and shaking, even though he was 1700 miles away at the time, as it happened before shayla came to him.

Shayla's never seen Master mad. Aggrivated, irritated, frustrated, very displeased, but to her knowledge she's never seen him actually angry. Which if fine by her, she'd just as soon avoid witnessing such an event. Nor has she ever known him to raise his voice. For shayla, the opposite is more frightening. There's little that sends such a jolt of fear through her like her Master lowering his voice.

He's very easy-going, not one whose feathers are ruffled easily. The rules that shayla lives by are simple, but inflexible. And he's rather easy to approach about things. Shayla can and has talked to him about anything and everything, and continues to do so.

But he's very clear on what he expects as far as obedience, honesty, and conditions of his girl's surrender to him. It's pretty simple. Complete obedience, total honesty, and zero conditions. There have been times that shayla hasn't been fully obedient, once or twice that she's tried to put qualifications on her service. The results of those stunts are still fresh in her memory, despite having happened weeks, sometimes months ago. Thinking about them is enough to make her striving to do better. She's never lied to him, nor will she. The notion simply doesn't bear thinking about.

Really, it makes perfect sense, this 5-year rule. Why get angry over something that ultimately won't matter? And the things that ultimately will matter certainly are worth getting serious, even angry if warranted, about.

shayla