This Is This

There was a lady on the bus next to me two days who was fidgety just this side of sanity.

Any more and I would have been sympathetic, any less and I would have been cool about it. Sometimes you get restless people whose movement bothers them and then they settle down, but with this lady, nothing was right. She would get settled and then something would be wrong. The seatbelt. the thing in her pocket, the light, the seatbelt again. Christ - how many adjustments can you make to you surrounding on a bus seat. Then the air conditioning vent again, for fuck’s sake.

Why is it that people behave in ways that make themselves uncomfortable and unhappy? Surely the answer is easy. The answer is easy to me. Maybe I’m being arrogant.

It just takes a little perspective.

The air conditioning is broken? Look at it as a short ride home - don’t let it worry you.

The thing in your pocket is annoying you? Look at it as a long ride home, so don’t let it worry you.

The seat’s not comfortable? You’re going home. Everything there can be just the way you like it.

For a while. And then it will change.

Sit still.

Is anyone else behaving the way you are?

Would anyone be better off if they were?

Sit still.

All this said, I am a restless person, but in the active, productive sense rather than a fidget. But it’s the things that we like least in ourselves that most annoy us about other people.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 8:39 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed, or you can skip to the end and leave a comment yourself.