As I slowed to go around them I was amazed to see the driver of one of the cars exit his vehicle, dash over to the other car, jump onto the hood then onto the roof. Before he could do any real damage though, the car suddenly lurched forward a couple of feet, and the would-be-tap-dancer-on-the-hot-tin-roof toppled off the roof and slid off the trunk, landing on his chin. I think the guy was stupendously lucky not to have broken his neck or planted his nose in the asphalt, but still it looked extremely painful and he was not getting up.
The other driver got out, cautiously approached the moaning (I couldn't hear it, but he probably was moaning) former aggressor to assess his condition; then having concluded the guy was going to live, got back into his car and drove off.
Our conversation then segued into a more generalized topic: namely, why are people everywhere such pissed-off dicks? Y said that in Y's experience Americans are the friendliest, most open people anywhere (Y was raised in a Middle Eastern country and has also lived in Europe -- and while not as cosmopolitan as Y, I do know something about East Asian people, and I have to say Y has a point), which got me talking about a related topic: the people that inhabit the downtown building where I live.
After moving into the building back in January, I'd made a point of politely greeting everyone with whom I shared the elevator. It was partly in hopes of making new friends, and also it was just a way to try and keep things pleasant overall. All too often though, I would say "Good morning" as our eyes met, only to be treated to awkward moments of silence or even weirded-out stares. Some people, I have to say, actually made me feel as if I'd done something improper by talking to them without permission or something (in fairness though, they were perhaps hallucinating they were pre-revolutionary French aristocrats). Although there were some honorable exceptions, it was just getting to me and after a while I just stopped greeting strangers.
But this morning, as I walked down the lobby toward the front door I noticed this intimidatingly large, wrestler-in-a-suit type manning the front desk. He turned to look at me and flashed a friendly smile. He greeted me brightly and wished me a pleasant day.
It was like a ray of sunshine, I told Y, to be at the receiving end of all this niceness and polite manners after running into so many impenetrably indifferent (O.K., rude) people. Well, I guess I was still feeling a bit of an afterglow.
Only hours later did it occur to me how it might have sounded to my other co-worker -- this one shall be called X -- if X happened to be within hearing range, and inwardly I went, Oh, crap!
Because it so happened that X was in the midst of giving me the silent treatment after an incident which had occured a few days earlier, one which had each of us feeling the aggrieved party (the exact nature of the incident is not relevant here -- let it suffice to say that yours truly sometimes makes the mistake of presuming that the universe always makes sense and that people are always rational and thoughtful).
Anyway, I was long over it but X was not (I accept that different people cool off at different rates, and I've done the same thing to someone in the past, so I'm not saying I'm the bigger man here). I'd come in in the morning, throw a "Good Morning, X" X's way, and X would not look at me nor return the greeting. Come quitting time, either X would leave before me without saying anything, or I'd say "'Bye, X" as I left, and X would not acknowledge me.
If X overheard me talking to Y, I couldn't exactly blame X for thinking I was deliberately going on and on about rude people not returning my greeting... so possibly now X is not only mad at me over the original incident, but thinks I'm a snide jerk on top of that as well.
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