You’ve been playing racquetball, switching partners, for an hour this morning.

This particular game has had some good rallies, the four people on the court seem about evenly matched, and everyone has been hitting the ball to the wall, rather than in the floor.

The game is now tied at 14. It’s a tossup who will win.

Your partner serves the ball

You keep your eyes on the ball, follow it back to the front wall after the return of serve.

You make a clean shot when it comes off the front wall.

Your opponent hits it back. Now it’s coming your way, but you can’t quite reach it.

It goes by you.

You decide you’re going to hit it into the back wall.

You raise your racquet, turn to hit it, and realize your racquet is only a few feet from your opponent’s face.

Can you stop your swing before you hit that opponent with the ball or the racquet?

Maybe you believe the opponent should not be so close. You might be right. But you should be aware of where all the people are in the court.

And you have to stop when a dangerous situation develops.

If you can’t stop then you can do damage to someone else on the court.

You may feel angry at this person for getting in your way.

And she may feel the same way about where you ended up. She might have wanted to get around you, but perhaps you did not move.

Just remember, no point, even the winning one, is so important that someone gets hurt.