is the word 'diary' better than the word 'blog'? probably not.
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it's not only about escalators.
lately I've had a spate of annoying public encounters having to do with escalators, stairs, and elevators. you could say it's because I live in new york city, take the subway, and work at a large public institution of higher education, I guess. the worst offense is what i'll call the esca-late-or. someone is on the escalator in front of you. he or she gets to the end of the escalation process and steps off. and then stops walking. just stands there. so you are forced to bump into him or her.
so lame! but what's shocking (to me) is how freaking often this happens. lately it happens most of the time, as in, whenever I'm on an escalator, I am more likely to find myself behind an escamoron than not! now, most of the time when this happens the person realizes his or her airheady error (err-head?) and says, oops, sorry!
but then there are the others. the others who GET ANGRY THAT YOU HAVE JUST BUMPED INTO THEM. wtf? ugh. if I were to bother to respond to such a performance, where would I begin? "I'm so sorry, sir or madam, to have nudged my way into your personal space, I can't quite explain it, but it seems I have been swept forward into you by some mysteriously inexorable force, as if I were on a, well, a conveyor belt, OR AN ESCALATOR, and thus had no choice but to land where I have. please find it in your heart to forgive me." harumph!
there are others. people who live in a large city and still don't know that you don't block a full escalator? that you stand to the right, walk to the left? you can still talk to your friend even if you do that? you and your suitcase can both be on the right? and so on.
there is the stairway variation of the esca-late-or. if you get to the top of some stairs and have to stop, why not step to the side? even if you are carrying luggage, why not step to the side? all I'm really asking is that people give one moment's thought to the conditions in which we live. by which I mean, there are other people in the world! what you do makes a huge difference to others, even others you do not know and never will know. THINK!
the kind of rudeness that results from solipsistic thoughtlessness seems to be on the rise. I find it saddening and offensive because it indicates a larger social problem totally different from the reality of other kinds of rudeness. I think I actually prefer overt rudeness because at least then everyone knows it for what it is. what is unsettling about thoughtless rudeness is that all these people are walking around finding themselves innocent of error while contributing to the decay of social order. I am not joking! why should it be OK to pretend that you are the star of a show for which the rest of the people in the world are disposable extras?
there are other complaints. these suffice for today.
I'm not saying I'm perfectly thoughtful, that I'm never an err-head. I think it's ok to cast metaphorical stones that might turn into boomerangs on occasion. and it's ok to be totally self-involved sometimes. I'm not asking for perfection, or even for anything onerous. it is such a modest demand: think about other people. have things gotten so bad that we can't even rely on that as a bare minimum?
posted by sk3 in the car on the way to visit gus's parents. apparently the story I was telling about why carrot juice is so good was so compelling that we missed a turnoff.
4:16 p.m. - May 09, 2008
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