Saturday, June 16, 2012

To that old man on the street

To that old man in the street who yelled at me the other morning to stop looking at my phone and pay attention to what was going on around me, whilst I was walking down the street and there were 0 cars around:

I may have meekly walked away as tears sprang to my eyes, but I was so stunned at your abhorrent behavior that I was rendered absolutely speechless. Who are you? What was that? I cannot imagine talking to a single being on the planet the way you attacked me. I was causing you nor anyone else any harm and yet you zeroed in on me like a lion on its prey and tore straight through my skin with your sharp tone and sharper words. It is people like you, people who demonstrate a complete lack of respect for decency and humanity, that are causing this world to become a darker and scarier place. I am not naive enough to suggest that the world can operate as a place of sunshine and roses, but I am not nearly hardened enough to feel that treating others as you treated me will ever be acceptable. The darkest side of me hopes that the reason you are so bitter and crass is because all those you have ever cared about have treated you the same way you treated me. But I reason with myself that maybe you also had a bad morning and youngsters sending e-mails from their iPhones is a pet peeve and you just couldn't resist and maybe you just exploded and are now deeply ashamed and regretful. It may not be even remotely true, but it makes me feel better to believe that we all feel apologetic for our bad behavior. Then the world can still be a friendly place.

1 comment:

  1. Oh girl, lets go find him. For real. Sit him down and teach him kindness. I'm sorry that happened to you, being yelled out is so harsh. Hopefully he's just a lunatic.

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