Part of my job is in direct sales. I go to home shows and fairs and stand in a booth and talk to people about the product that I am affiliated with. I do so for more than one reason, one, it pays the bills, two, I love the product, and three, I love to people watch.
People watching is a pretty amusing passer of time. I have learned some things, that at some other point in time I might share with anyone who continues to read my blog. However, there is a line, not sure how fine a line, between watching people and interacting with them.
Recently I injured my leg. I had taken up exercising and it has been injurious to my body. Although I have been told that my hairline or stress fracture is not really a broken leg, it is being treated as such by my doctor in that I am wearing a boot up to my knee and am completely non weight bearing when I am not wearing said boot. This is not to gain sympathy from anyone, just to segway into why this whole topic has come to pass.
Because I am slightly incapacitated, wearing boot and carrying crutches, I am now the object of peoples curiosity. It s amazing to me how many complete strangers want to know the COMPLETE story of what happened, when, how, etc. etc. I mean REALLY? I could just hand out a written brochure explaining what happened, but I am finding myself a bit on the perturbed side that strangers are so rude to ask. Does it affect their lives at all? Just today a sales clerk in a store interrupted a conversation I was having with someone else to say "What happened to your leg?". I stated I broke it, and she said well at least it happened in winter and here where it is not snowy. I had two options at that point, to tell her I am really from NY and going back to the snow on Friday, or just smile and go on with the conversation with my friend. I chose the latter and the saleswoman was put off and kind of hurmphed away because I did not feel the need to get into a complete discussion with her, a stranger, about my leg. At times I have engaged people in their curiosity and mostly have had to end up listening to their life story of every broken bone they, their cousin Edith or brother Bennet ever had. Again, people watching does not actually involve engaging them in conversation!
I mean, not only what do I care how or why a person is disfigured, wearing a cast, has their arm in a sling, or is walking with a limp, unless that person is important to me. And when does it become my right to ask people about these things?
I remember when I was pregnant and feeling pretty much the same way. People felt they had the right to touch my incredibly large belly. I actually felt violated by that. To the point that I smile at women who are pregnant, but rarely ask any questions and never touch unless that person is a personal friend, and then again, only after asking!
As I drive down the highway on my morning commute I listen to the radio station in the city into which I am driving. I listen specifically to the traffic so I can avoid any major delays due to accidents (my commute is long enough without sitting in traffic over a fender bender). I think to myself on the odd occasion when I can't by pass an accident - why is this taking so long? Obviously, it takes time to condense three or two lanes of traffic into one or two lanes of traffic, I get this. And obviously one would want to slow down so as not to hurt their car or persons displaced. But I have literally seen people brake so they can crane their heads out the windows to see the accident scene. I really have no interest in seeing mangled cars and potentially mangled bodies. Am I just weird that way?
So, I ask now, again what seems to be the question of the year, Am I getting Old????? Because all this "curiosity" to me just seems to be rudeness!
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