Walking down the street this afternoon I was in a hurry and moving at my top walking pace which is quite fast. I was preparing to cross the street, looked over my shoulder at the traffic to make sure it was clear and then began to cross. I was at an intersection so used the pedestrian area of the intersection but had not waited for the “green man” signal to appear thus I was jaywalking. Suddenly, from behind me, I heard a man urgently call out “HEY!” at me in a rather frantic tone - the sort of warning tone that suggested to me that I’d somehow not seen a car and was just about to be hit. I immediately stopped, slightly panicked because I still couldn’t see the danger I was in, and stepped back quickly to the gutter because standing still in the middle of the road was obviously not the place to halt. Still not able to see the cause of impending death, I finally turned to the man who had yelled out to me and, staring at him rather blankly, asked what the problem was.

SPOTD: You’re not setting a very good example.

I continued to stare at him blankly for another few seconds then it all made sense. Beside the man stood his wife and family, and me walking across the road without waiting for the lights was a poor example to his children. Now, credit where it’s due, he was teaching his children right from wrong. I regularly rant about people who don’t do that, yet I was furious he’d scared me into believing I was going to hit by a car. Sure, teach kids right from wrong but don’t yell out at me. Wait until I’ve crossed the road then quietly talk to your kids and say “that was a bad man, he didn’t wait for the lights”. You’ve got your lesson and I’ve not had my life interrupted.

My brain immediately raced for a response as I stared at him. What could I come back with? How could I pick on him for not being a good example? Was he committing a crime of fashion? Did he have a mullet? What could I set upon him with? That’s when I realised that he was gift-wrapping my response - he was smoking a cigarette!

Me (becoming increasingly angry): How dare you?! How dare you lecture me on not being a good role model for your children?!? Firstly, it’s not my job to raise your children - that’s your job. Secondly, you dare to have a go at me for crossing the road without the lights yet you stand there smoking? You’ve got three kids under the age of ten, one of them is in a stroller and you fill their lungs with passive smoke? You continue to kill yourself with cancerous chemicals and poison the environment around you? How dare you?!?!

I never gave him the chance to respond. I spun and stormed off across the street once more, vowing that when I get to be the ruler of the universe, there’ll be laws against stopping someone for no good reason. Grr.

Categories: SPOTD
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