pick-a-boo

When some weeks ago I undertook to describe for my audience (all 3 or 4 of you) a selection of behavioural aberrations which aggravate me, I knew it was going to be a trying task. Not because I Love Everything About Everyone All Of The Time; rather, because I am generally too oblivious to the finer points of human intercourse to discern even the most offence-takeable conduct. I ended up having even more trouble than anticipated, not least for the realisation that I exhibit many of the very traits which I find undesirable in others. But I am not one to shirk from procrastinatory pontification, so here goes.

Laziness, the Root of All Evils. I'm not talking about the habitual sleepers-in, serial mess-leavers, those with below-average attentiveness to personal hygiene, or fans of inactivity allsorts - we're only human. Laziness of mind, by contrast, is less excusable. Dramatic reductions in ignorance, cruelty, conflict, isolation, shrink's bills, reality TV [to name just a few of the world's evils] would be achieved if more people:
- didn't confuse regurgitating what they choose to hear with intellectual discourse;
- read and wrote for fun;
- made time for one another;
- communicated through listening more than speaking;
- asked questions instead of trying to answer them;
- ...

Saying one thing to someone's face and another behind their back. Little White Lies lubricate, and as such are indispensable in any superfical setting. But with People In Your Life, be generous with your praise and frank with your criticism, is all I'm sayin'. Don't kid yourself: if you've thought it, it can't be better left unsaid.

"That's a little personal, don't ya think?" Maybe I have problems with Boundaries. Maybe I hear this line more often than the national average. Nevertheless. How am I to interact with a person without getting personal? Every crossing of paths is the culmination of incomprehensibly tremendous cosmic forces, why fight it?