I was walking to the grocery store this afternoon about 5 o’clock. It had rained a bit earlier so the air was nice and cool and the world had a clean and pleasant feel to it. As I was walking down Křižíkova Street, two young girls, probably in their 20s, a short brunette and a taller blonde one, who did most of the talking, approached me.
About a block from here
I thought they probably wanted directions or were selling something, they were too well dressed to be homeless and begging for money, and I am well past the age where girls might be stopping me for more interesting reasons, so I stopped to hear them out.
They were showing me some pamphlet and reeling off their spiel, the way Czech people will do, totally oblivious to the fact that the person they’re talking to is only understanding about one word in 5, and they were showing me a pamphlet. O.K., they were promoting a website, and I caught something about deeper answers. There was a JW in the site name and I asked them what that stood for and was not surprised that it was Jehovah’s Witnesses. I smiled, handed the flier back, and said “Have a nice day.”
They said “You, too,” and we parted ways. It made me think of how different real life is from facebook. On facebook, I would have either mocked them or blocked them, but face to face…
Well, perhaps it’s moral cowardice, perhaps it’s just being non-confrontational, but they were nice girls, perfectly polite, and they’ve got a right to promote what they believe in.
But facebook is a different place and I don’t see it as a shortcoming that our behavior there is different. On facebook we can be a bit more direct, less polite, more confrontational.
I get to exercise the argumentative side of my nature, without it doing any harm to the real world environment. This is a good thing. Because, underneath this smiling, polite veneer I try to present to the world, I can be a bitter, old asshole.
www.gurukalehuru.com 