A Reflection Upon Skirmishes

I am not one to engage myself into fights of a physical nature. However, I swear by participation in a good debate every now and then. So, recently, my godfather and I were arguing over whether, as the character Lord Wotton says, beauty and youth are in fact our chief pursuits in life as stated by Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Not really, because debates of such an intellectual nature have unfortunately become rare in our conversations, but let's just say that hypothetically we were. As previously stated, I love debates, so I myself would not try and avoid the fight. Whether he will admit it or not, it is very evident that he does too, so he would not try an avoidance tactic either. The events of said arguement are really not significant, because we all know how it probably went: I, trying to be mature and clever, emit a string of silly little references and metaphors adding up to an equally silly opinion; and he, also trying to be mature and clever, tries to counter my attack with something even more profound that possibly doesn't make any sense at all either. And from there, the arguement's basis and details change...we are now agressively trying to prove that we are better, more intelligent, and more worldly than the other. Me, sensing that the fight is in fact an attack wholly on my person, will probably retreat into a melancholy stupor as I brood on and on about what an evil person my godfather is.

Embarassingly, I will admit that somewhere along those lines I seem to have lost my point. However, it is quite possible that my point was something pertaining to the likeness that many of our arguements seem to share. Or, perhaps, how easily something so small can be fueled into becoming something much more.

Unfortunately, from that hypothetical heated arguement, I have learned nothing, and it is likely that my mouth and mind will continue to run away from me as I commence to pick more fights of this sort with anyone and everyone. My, oh my, it does indeed bite to have an opinion of any sort that one feels even the slightest hint of passion towards...