I was leaving base today, and as always I said good bye to the gaurd working there. I always say something along the lines of "bye, have a nice night", or some rendition. Today, I said have a good night, and the gaurd said "good, hows it going?" I mean, seriously, does have a good night sound anything like how are you doing? Furthermore, who asks some one how theyre doing as they are going? "bye, how are you doing??" I didnt say anything back, but instead wondered the whole way home how often people just hear what they want to hear. Its not a new thought, but i went on that tangent for a few blocks before i realized that ive been here close to a year now, and go to base at the least 4 times a week... and i have never once had some one say something that made as little sence as that. In fact, i couldnt remember one time in the last few years where ive said something that was responded to totally inappropriately. So, then i spent the next few blocks thinking about how people have this ONE experience, but then chalk it up to an every day experience. THAT person didnt listen to me, so, no one really listens. Ya know what i mean?
Further more, Im sure that poor gaurd thinks, "what a bitch, I asked her how she was doing, and she didnt even look at me -- what a snob"
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6 comments:
i am one of those people who don't listen... any idea how many "how are you"s and "ain't the weather nice"s do i get from all the faculty and staff in the hallways of the department? it becomes a reflex to just blabber a "not bad, how about yourself", or "yeah, finally some sunshine"... I'm like Pavlov's dogs, depending on the time of day and day of the week, different preconditioned responses come out...
yeah, but even pavlovs dogs drooled when they heard the bell, they didnt chase their tail and play dead. I understand reflex reactions, i mean some one saying "hey hows it going" does not actually mean they want to hear about the fight you had on the phone with your mother about her comming to stay with you or how you have a nasty ingrown toe nail that bugs you every step you take. It simply can be translated to "grunt, grunt, appropriate human greeting". Case in point, you wont even say HOW you are doing, but instead just return the greeting with a "how you doing" which really is just you saying "grunt grunt, greeting replied to". It IS just like pavlovs dogs, but that was my whole point... you have to be listening somewhat to be able to give the correct response, no matter how conditioned the response is. I said see ya later, have a good one, (translation: bell ringing), and he said "how are you doing", (translation, bark bark). Some how hes missed his pavlovian training....or he totally wasnt paying attention in the slightest.
But then again, my point of that rant really wasnt to complain about how people dont listen, it was more to show how quick people are to make vast generalizing statements about a whole population, because of one incident. I was poking fun at myself more than i was complaining about some poor dude at work.
Or were you not listening???
ahhhh, well, i work cashier, and it seems 7 out of 10 times i say "have a good one" to the leaving customer in the OPPOSITE direction of incoming customers, i get "pretty good, how about yourself?" from the new customer in line. Of course, like you said, this wasn't your point....just letting you know, your not alone, and he wasn't nuts.
I think the poor guard, who was obviously smitten by your beauty, spent the remainder of the evening hitting himself in the head saying something like, "Duh. Why did I say that. She must think I'm a real dork!"
I think your so good looking that
she wont'ed you!
im i not listing,by the comments
it seams to be a man. Thought it
was a woman?
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