Sunday, November 11, 2007
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5:41 p.m.
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As a resident of a big city like Toronto, you have to get used to the fact that because of the large number of people clustered in one place, you're going to run into some extreme or unusual personalities on a fairly regular basis. After a while you become somewhat numb to this kind of intrusion in your life and take it as being par for the course. Most of the time you can avoid any meaningful interaction, and other times you have to deal with it whether you like it or not.While in Dominion today picking up a few essentials for a friend laid up in the hospital, I somehow invoked the ire of a man I can only assume is mentally challenged in some way. He was a large, round man with a scraggly beard, blue jacket, and sweat pants. Were it not for the hostile attitude, he could have passed for a department store Santa Claus.
What I did to insult this man was simple: I patiently stood in line behind him.
My attention focused on another part of the store, I was surprised when all of a sudden I was rammed in the midsection by his large butt. I looked to see why I was rudely pushed back a few feet and saw him fully bent over. Rather than get into an argument, I just assumed that he dropped something and accidentally bumped into me. I waited a moment for an apology that did not come.
"That guy just butt-rammed me," I told Catherine. She found this quite humourous.
In the end, not a big deal. Another few moments pass and once again my attention drifts away. Catherine grabs my arm as all of a sudden the basket the man was using was on the floor beside me. I didn't see him do it, but Catherine told me that he flung it back behind him in an attempt to hit me. By this point, I still hadn't said a word to the man or even looked at him.
Rather than get angry, I'm mostly just amused by this point. As the man lifts up his wallet to comb through it for change, he all of a sudden stretches one hand, and one finger in particular, out towards me. I laugh a little at this point.
He then leans over to the cashier and mutters something about his dislike for me. It was either that I'm "a bad man" or that I'm "an asshole." It amounts to the same thing either way. He shuffles off and the cashier flashes me a grin and offers an apology. I told her it wasn't necessary because up until that point my day had actually been quite dull.
Posted by
Parallel
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