This morning, I was part of the huge crowd of suburban commuters streaming out of the east Madison Avenue exit of Union Station.<\/p>\n
It’s a little chaotic when you step outside the station during morning rush hour. There’s not a ton of room. Often, there are several representatives from a random company strategically placed in your way, handing out free samples of something-or-other. Lately, there have been a couple people standing next to their own little book display near the outside entrance who want to tell you something about The Bible.<\/p>\n
Some commuters want to cross Madison Avenue, some commuters want to walk east on Madison, some commuters want to walk west. I walked by a couple women, one of whom was waving to yet another woman, who waved back. The couple and the single woman were separated by a throng of people, but the single woman was making her way towards toward them.<\/p>\n
Back to the couple of women. The non-waving woman (NW) said to her waving (W) companion, “Do you want me to wait for you?” It seemed like W knew the other woman, while NW probably didn’t, or at least didn’t know her as well as W did.<\/p>\n
W replied, “Okay, you can do it.” This reply was uttered in a nice-but-lazy tone of voice. <\/p>\n
The interaction between NW and W stuck in my head on my walk from the train to my building. I didn’t like what W said. Why did she say that? Why couldn’t she have simply said, “Yes, please.”?<\/p>\n
NW had offered to wait. She said something nice and selfless. W basically gave her approval to NW’s action, but without acknowledging the gesture\/niceness\/sacrifice NW offered to make for her.<\/p>\n
What was the nature of W and NW’s relationship? Was it unequal? Did NW often offer help or comfort to W, only to never have it acknowledged by W? Did W do this to everyone, or just NW?<\/p>\n
Or, less likely, was NW usually the oblivious jerk of the relationship, never recognizing the friendship of W, and W was just being passive-aggressive about it this one time?<\/p>\n
I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This morning, I was part of the huge crowd of suburban commuters streaming out of the east Madison Avenue exit of Union Station. It’s a little chaotic when you step outside the station during morning rush hour. There’s not a ton of room. Often, there are several representatives from a random company strategically placed in … Continue reading “Okay, you can do it.”<\/span>