ASK A VIPER — “They Said They Would” [STREET AMBIENCE — people passing, traffic, occasional voices] REALLY HOOD: Can I ask you something? MAN: Depends what it is. REALLY HOOD: See, y'all always start with conditions. MAN: [laughs] That's called growth, Really. REALLY HOOD: Okay then, Viper. Somebody tells you they're gonna do something. You believe them. You make decisions based on it. And then they don't do it. What do you do with the disappointment? MAN: At first? Be mad. REALLY HOOD: That's it? MAN: Hell yeah. Why everybody wanna skip that part? If you told me you were gonna be there, and I planned around you being there—and then you weren't there? I'm disappointed. That don't mean I'm bitter. That don't mean I expected too much. That don't mean God was protecting me. Maybe you just ain't do what you said you were gonna do. REALLY HOOD: Mmm. MAN: People be trying to turn somebody else's failure into a lesson about your expectations. Nah. Sometimes my expectation was reasonable. REALLY HOOD: Okay. But you still gotta move on. MAN: Absolutely. But moving on ain't rewriting what happened. That's where people mess up. You can accept something without pretending it was acceptable. REALLY HOOD: Wait. Say that again. MAN: I can accept that you didn't come through. That doesn't mean I have to decide it was okay that you didn't. REALLY HOOD: So where's the Viper part? MAN: The next time. REALLY HOOD: Explain. MAN: First time you tell me, “I got you,” maybe I build with you. You don't come through? I'm paying attention. Now if we do business again, I'm not building my whole plan around your promise. REALLY HOOD: So you don't trust them anymore? MAN: Didn't say that. Maybe I trust you to be exactly who you showed me you are. [brief pause] REALLY HOOD: Oooooh. MAN: See? [laughs] Trust don't always mean, “I believe you'll do right.” Sometimes trust means, “I believe this is your pattern, so I'm gonna plan accordingly.” REALLY HOOD: But what if they change? MAN: Then they'll give me new information. I'm not stopping nobody from growing. But I'm also not financing their growth with another disappointment. REALLY HOOD: Damn. MAN: You asked! REALLY HOOD: [laughing] I did. So what's the rule? MAN: Don't punish the next person for what the last person did. But don't keep giving the same person opportunities to teach you the same lesson. REALLY HOOD: There it is. [brief street ambience] MAN: And Really? REALLY HOOD: What? MAN: You can heal your disappointment without lowering your standards. REALLY HOOD: .....Yeah. [VERY LOW STING] VOICEOVER: THE VIPER CODE. Acceptance does not require revision. Patterns are information. And healing does not require pretending you expected too much.
