Sometimes (all the time) I feel like I have no sense of entitlement. I don't think anyone owes me anything that I don't have just because I think I should have (or want) certain things.
You know who thinks they should just get whatever they want all the time? Old People. I'm not talking about my grandparents here, ok? I'm not talking about the nice neighbor lady down the street or the grannies at church. I'm talking about the Old People who see you in passing and sneer at you because you're young and therefore have experienced nothing in life that makes you worthy of their respect or even mere politeness. I cannot tell you how many times a person has completely disregarded a warm greeting I've given them only to grumble their coffee order as if they are talking to some sort of moronic computer-- and I hate to admit it but these people are almost always elderly.
These are the Old People I'm talking about. They demand your respect, even if they don't respect you in return. They demand you treat them like royalty because they've managed to, I don't know, not die for a substantial amount of time. Which, considering their snotty sense of entitlement, is seriously impressive. Maybe that's their secret ploy: they have some kind of world-weary desire to die, driving them to piss off as many people as possible in the hope that someday, one of these people will kill them. Is that really as crazy as it sounds? Who cares. Old People are crazy.
I'm really getting off topic here.
Here's my point or whatever:
Guess what Old People: you don't deserve my respect unless you respect me.
Guess what Old Man who hit on me at Starbucks today: you definitely don't deserve my respect. And if it weren't for the respect I have for my job, I would have snatched your cane (he had a cane) and stomped on your cripply old feet, leaving you all helpless and pathetic n junk. And I wouldn't have felt bad about it.
Okay, fine.. I would have felt a little bad.
But when an old man spills his coffee on the ground and then whispers in your ear that it's because he "wanted to get a closer look at you," your brain just implodes and you smile insanely (newsflash: it's surprisingly hard to smile when you're trying not to run away/cry/throw up), pick up the sopping wet paper towel and try not to throw it in his face when he asks you if he gets another coffee.
Don't get me wrong, I kept my cool. I can be professional. In fact, if anyone has any spare medals laying around, feel free to engrave "Good Sport" on it and mail it to me because I fucking deserve it. But this man does not deserve my respect, and he is not entitled to treat me like that no matter how old he is. And I don't think it would have been wrong of me to say so, to his face. If I were a more confrontational person, or if I thought it would actually make a difference, I guess I would have.
This ultimately makes me sad in a way that doesn't really have anything to do with me, or my job, or the fact that today a man with a cane looked at me like a piece of meat and said inappropriate things to me in an inappropriate setting. If Old People, people who have accumulated a lifetime of experience and wisdom are still resorting to childish, disgusting displays of sexual desperation... who are we as humans? Is that all we'll ever think about, as though we aren't capable of more?
This is one isolated incident, I realize. And I want to be shocked and appalled by his behavior, but I guess I'm just not. And that's depressing. Because this Old Man, he played one, he played knick-knack on my [image of the prototype human, who is once again ruining everything, when everything could just be fine.]
No comments:
Post a Comment