It's funny how the psychological part of a confrontation can come into play. Once, while in my teens, I was hitchhiking down a back road, after seeing an old girlfriend of mine. It was about midnight,and I had just walked past a road, that T'd onto the road I was on. A van full of dudes, (I could see it was full of dudes, cause for some reason, they had the dome light on) pulled up to the T and stopped. They made a right turn, and proceeded past me. While going by, they all flipped me the bird. So, being neighborly, I returned the gesture with both of my birds. They drove past me a little ways, and must of discussed things over. Because their brake lights came on, and they started to back up. I figured they were 1) coming back to offer me a ride, or 2) coming back to beat my ass. I was leaning more toward the ass beating part. I started to ponder the "fight or flight " option. (and quickly) I was very involved in the martial arts at the time, but still, 7 or 8 to one, was a little more than I wanted to deal with. One option was to get into the woods beside the road. But, I thought, if they follow me in there, I could end up, being left back in the woods with my ass beat. By the road, with my ass beat, I could look for help, after the ass beaters left. Then another option popped into my head. I started double timing toward them. They must have thought, I was some type of crazy person. The ones looking out the back window must have said something to the driver, like, the crazy f#@k*r is coming after us. Cause just before I got to the van. Their backup lights went out, the reverse motion stopped, and the tires squealed in drive, as they drove off into the night. Whew! It worked! I couldn't believe it worked. That was ONE of the times, that psychology has helped to save my ass. I continued on with no more problems.
