Bads, or dumb-dumbs, (I haven’t decided on my technical term for them yet) make great people more cynical when taken seriously.
I was going down stairs to take the train home today, that’s one of my more liberated moments in the day nowadays, and it was a heavy flow of pedestrian traffic – so the stairs were being laned into people going up and down stairs. I was in the downstairs lane. And this kid, probly was about 8, ran up next to some party, right in front of me, and just stood there. I was forced to stop, couldn’t go left, back, right, and he was just being an oblivious dumb kid.
Now, I’m a suited out 6’4 guy and this’s a busy intersection in nyc and it’s 5 turdy, and this’s a dick-heighted kid who’s too oblivious to realized there’s literally 15 people he’s inconveniencing. So I sternly sez, “Watch it! Watch it!”
This’s someone else’s kid, and I wish that he was being watched better.
Now he sort of gets out of my way, and NOW an older sister pulls him aside, but as he does so he says “YOU WATCH IT.”
And like . . . lol. I was. Obviously I’m more aware than this 8-12 year old. But now I’m surprised he’s a turd and this’s his attitude instead of the “Sorry” I would’ve had. NYC ped-traffic rules, kid’s a lil shit.
So I keep walking, because, I’ve gots to get home baby, but I turn to him and go “Are you serious?”
and now HE seems surprised that I’m talking back. And he looks at me, and FROWNS, it’s almost comical, he FROWNS, so miserably, and goes “YEAH!” that it’s like a pantomime of a kid playing a tough guy. Now I feel like someone’s been teaching him how to be an asshole.
And I won’t lie, now I wanted to thwock him on the head. If this was my kid, I’d have kitty-bopped him. Straight up. But this isn’t my kid, and this’s someone else’s lil bag of poo. And again, I’ve got homes to be babeh 🙂
So I just say “Man, lookit you, you’re SO TOUGH. I’m super impressed.” and I walk on.
And y’know, maybe that was dumb. If I got under his skin, which if we’re being honest here whitespace, I wanted to (go me, I’m trying to get under the skin of an 8 year old. Ain’t I a champ?) I could see that jeer helping him to rationalize being an asshole when he actually IS feeling tough, later in life.
And, this’s part of why I’m crazy, and need the first line of this entry as a pearl of wisdom to apply to all situations: dumb-dumbs make you more cynical if taken seriously. (And being too cynical makes you a dumb-dumb, cause then no one should take you seriously.) Cause I was actually rewiring my future actions in my head and priming myself so I was more likely to try and teach the kid a lesson rather than jeering, by saying “listen kid, if you wanna act like a lil turd, society will definitely treat you like a lil turd right back.”
But, ya know, on the other hand being able to say the right thing ISN’T as important as say, moving forward.
Cause any new yorker knows, the kid’s a dumb-dumb.
No need to be a bigger dumb-dumb.
Eric is the Best 