While home for Thanksgiving, I was talking to Geoff about the politics of hugging… My impulse is to hug people back home that I haven’t seen in awhile, but every once in awhile I hit someone that will have none of it/obviously prefers not to have a Marciariffic squeeze. I tell myself it’s not just me, they are not huggers—and I’m guessing for the most part that is the truth.
But the opposite of this occasional anti-hugger is the person that has no need for personal space no boundaries whatsoever. Such as the guy who sat next to me on the plane that had both arm rests AND decided his newspapers belonged under my seat. Yeah. He totally shoved his newspaper UNDER my seat … under my butt really, without so much as an acknowledgement. I spent most of the three-hour flight practically flattened against the window so as to avoid contact with this overly comfortable flyer. It was weird.
At least I thought it was weird. Yesterday, I got a mid-afternoon caffeine fix in the form of a Coke. Since I didn’t finish it, it was still sitting on my desk this morning. Our office runner guy came through to bring me some interoffice mail and saw my soda… and said OH can I have
Nope, apparently he wanted the tab on my can, which he reached over the top of my desk around my monitor and snapped off and said something about saving them for a house … I think he meant Ronald McDonald House. Now that is a GREAT cause, and I am all for his enthusiasm in saving tabs for them but … what if I was still drinking the soda? It was sitting right in front of me! I just don’t think I’d have the nerve to touch the top of someone’s can where they are about to put their mouth without their permission.
So …. Is it me? Are my personal space boundaries too high? Or do I give off a push-over vibe? A vibe that says “No really, my 14 inches of airplane seat, is your 14 inches… My soda is your soda!” I’m very confused and somewhat amused….
What might tomorrow bring?? :-)
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