One of the things I can respect in people is being fully aware of social constructs and not following them. I don’t mean hooligans, vandals or rebels who need their rebellion to give meaning to a life that desperately needed meaning in the first place. I’m talking about people who know how the world works and use that knowledge to their advantage to make the world a better place. My favorite example was sitting in the same booth in an Irish train. Crossing the country of Ireland (if you look outside the window, you’ll see the bottom half of the horizon is green, the upper half is grey. That really sums up all of Ireland to me), two older ladies came sitting in the same booth me and my companion were in. We were in the window seats across from each other.
The two ladies chatted a bit about cats, the butcher on the corner and who had died among their mutual acquaintances (I assume). At one point their natural conversation was over and the one sitting next to me went looking out of the window. Or, technically, she was looking at me, hoping I wasn’t noticing her stare. The other started fumbling about in her purse and dug up a bag of candy. She got one for herself, gave one to the lady next to me and started looking at us. She tilt the bag my way and offered me some weird candy. Naturally, I refused taking it. It wasn’t that I honestly didn’t want it, it’s just the way it is supposed to go. ‘Sure you can have the last piece of pizza. You only had 3 out of 4 pieces so far. No no, I’m not hungry.’ That what you’re supposed to say. Not to this lady apparently. We both refused her candy, but she took out a full hand, dunked the sweets on the little table in the middle and said, ‘Now who doesn’t want candy?’
I liked her attitude so much more than I liked the candy. It was horrible. Really.
Awkward life in detail. 