Everybody Loves a Monkey

I don't understand why we've turned into this world that panics when someone we don't know talks to us. My whole issue of people walking by at work, not saying good morning or anything of the sort... well this sort of falls under those lines. I exited the elevator on my floor, leaving a man to go up 2 more floors. A man ran out of the title company next door to catch the elevator (ignoring the florescent UP arrow highlighted next to the doors) and the gentleman in the elevator asked if he was going up. The man says "No, I go down." as the door shuts... I could see his mind racing "Did I just say, I go down? What is that?" as I walked away. Why do we panic the way we do? That panic feeling leads to the barely squeezed out "Hiiiii".. whiny, squeaky, barely a word.. were you humming or saying hello? I'd have to say 99% of people aren't going to rip your head off for smiling at them or greeting them as they enter the elevator. So what's the problem?

I dig those commercials that are all about leading by example. One of them shows adults acting irrationally about something or another and a 'mini-me" child standing next to them doing the same thing, one guy knocks a lady out of hte way that's trying to get her kids up some stairs, one of them shows a lady puking in an alley with a tiny girl next to her doing the same thing...and at the end of the commercial they say, Kids can see.
My favorite of them though, is a guy walking down a busy city street and sees a kid drop a doll from a stroller. He bends over, picks it up and gives it back to the kid. The mom didn't even notice he had done this, but someone else saw him do it, so he helped someone across the street or something like that, and the good deeds had a chain effect, going on and on and on..

So which chain has effected you today? Was it the negative, assholes all around you chain or is it the good deed chain? I will say that 99% of the time, in the area that I work, it's the negative asshole chain. People where I work, the other companies in my building, the drivers in this area, the shoppers at the local mall... 99% of the time, I have negative experiences with them. Today for instance, I honked my horn TWICE while picking up lunch. Two different asshole drivers doing just ridiculous things... and I must say, I rarely honk my horn but I couldn't avoid doing that today. this is what most of my days are like around here. And yet, I come back to work and try to get people to smile at me in the hallway.

Maybe it's understandable that people stumble over their own words when random people talk to them. We live in a world of assholes? Or is it just on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis?

something to think about.


Random question: If you are a vegetarian, do you still eat animal crackers?