Is Your Soul Crushed on a Daily Basis by Complete Strangers?
The secret formula to quick recovery
The elderly man glared at me as if I’d just said that Adolf Hitler had buttfucked his grandma.
“Do you live in this house? No? Well then, you can’t lean your bicycle on this wall!”
Many of you would breeze over this non-event in a jiffy and get on with your lives. But many of you — the introvert, the timid, the meek, the snowflakes (normally used pejoratively, but not here) — could easily let such an admonition ruin your day.
I’ve experienced so many days where I left home with a song in my heart, attributed perhaps to a combination of good weather, a positive impending event, kind words I’ve been told just before — just to have it all irreversibly (for the day) marred by a snide reprimand from a stranger.
These rebukes serve to “kindly” (not!) remind us that we’re not allowed to stand here with our vehicle; that our turn at the cashier’s has come, so why the hell aren’t we moving instead of playing with our phone; that we should walk faster or clear the way because someone behind us wants to pass; that we’re not supposed to put our feet on the seat; that we shouldn’t put a tiny piece of trash in a private bin that’s standing outside a house; and in general that we should follow…
