I had the occasion to take Sam to speech last night. I always enjoy the ride there and back with Sam, but when I'm there waiting, I never know what to expect. Often times, in the past, there's been a group of Moms there who take advantage of their sons being in a session, by treating the waiting room as a ladies club. Once their sons have disappeared into the other room, it's time to cue the spotlight. One at a time, they take turns talking at the other women, droning on and on about God knows what. The other women feign thoughtful expressions, occasionally nodding, looking distressed, or smiling- or whatever the appropriate reaction should be for the current performance. I'm pretty sure that none of them are really listening to whomever is doing the yapping, but rather, they are rehearsing their lines for when it is their turn to take the stage. This noise carries on, non-stop for the entire hour and barely a breath is taken.
Last night it was just me and one of the dads (not counting the receptionist behind the glass doors). This guy is a teacher and apparently he had a bad day. I've seen him several times before and I get the sense that the only kind of days he has are bad ones. He has a lot of opinions and expresses them forcefully, and that always makes me uncomfortable. But it's pretty hard to avoid a conversation when you're the only other one in the room. Luckily, the receptionist stepped into it and took up some of the slack.
One of the many things he was commenting on, besides his students and what a bunch of lazy ingrates they are (my words. I'm paraphrasing), were video games. He's against them it seems. It appears he's also against TV. I'm not sure how he feels about the radio or electric lights, but I know he drives a car, so I'm guessing he's ok with that. He railed about kids who have smart phones but can't afford to buy a notebook. How can you argue with that?
This guy is quite intelligent, which also makes me uncomfortable. He eventually directed his rant to the Internet (surprise!). But it wasn't really the Internet per se, it was more about social media. His wife apparently is on Facebook- and makes the mistake of not logging off. He "happened" to see her page at one point where one of her "friends" was complaining about her marriage, and she was commenting to everyone within her circle, or whatever you call it, thinking that it would somehow go no further. He was worked up about this. This, to him, was nuts.
As much as I hate to admit it, he had a point, and I've been kind of thinking about this myself lately. I write a lot of drivel here (present post included), but my motivation is usually not for an audience, it's just for the heck of it. Maybe it's just to get it off my chest. Mostly, it's just because something happens to be on my mind. But the thing is, I don't really care who sees it or who doesn't- as long as I don't have to interact with them. There's nothing here that would embarrass me- other than my bad grammar and inept punctuation. And even then, if someone doesn't like it, that's their problem.
I think with some people though, probably many people- they get lulled into some sense of intimacy and privacy, where none really exists. They will post intimate things about themselves that they would never think of saying or showing in any other forum. Maybe they'll post an intimate picture on Facebook or on Instagram or one of the millions of other sites, and they'll think that because there is the thin curtain of a password, that only a select few will ever see it. Yet it's an illusion. Once it's out there, it's out there and it's only a matter of time before the veil either slowly or quickly drops away to reveal a billboard of information or photos or whatever; things that they would never have even considered sharing if it were face to face. Yet, that is what happens. It ends up getting "shared" with the world, including eventually the people they would be most embarrassed to show it to- family, future employers- you name it. It's only a matter of time before these things get around. I don't know why people don't think about what might happen.
Anyway, this guy was on a tear. He worked himself up into such a lather that he finally had to step out into the below freezing night and go for a walk.
I hate when guys like that have a point. If I agree with them, then I feel like they want me to agree with them on everything they've been saying, and I can't do that. People like that, or this guy anyway, sees things in black and white. This seems pretty black and white to me too, but for everything else, I see too many shades of grey. Plus, I don't have the energy or inclination to argue. I don't even have the energy to listen. This situation is almost worse than having to listen to the din of the women's group clucking away. At least their act didn't require audience participation.
So, when Other Dad returned from his walk and started complaining about the speaker wires that were poking through the wall and how he bet those weren't up to code, I pretty much kept my mouth shut and pretended to read my months old magazine and waited for Sam to finish so we could enjoy the quiet ride home together.
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