Saturday, October 29, 2011
10.29
The people downstairs are playing music very loudly. I'm alternately glad that they're not hung over from last night and sad that I should even ask.
I've seen her leave our house wearing different pants. I wonder if I should ask or just keep my nose out.
I can clearly hear her phone conversation, but I keep walking because I know I shouldn't listen.
I ask how you're doing.
Was I justified? No.
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Nothing more?
ReplyDeleteWhite people seem to like gossip a lot more than most other races.
ReplyDeleteI apparently haven't met those races. Either that, or everyone gossips to me. I don't know. Maybe other races are just better at protecting their gossip from outsiders.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to gossip, by the way. I was talking about the last two lines. What do they mean?
I wanted to leave it as just the question, but it's not done without the answer. Basically, the last two lines are the fiction. The first few are hypotheticals to set up the last two.
ReplyDeleteHow, exactly, do they set up the last two? Of whom is the speaker requesting a status report? Is that what's not justified? Or is the unjustified thing the reason behind the inquiry? Or is there something else there that I'm missing (probably)?
ReplyDeleteAAAAAAAA
ReplyDeleteThe point is that we really don't have the right to inquire into people's lives. I guess. Anyway, that's how I see it. I mean, we do anyway, and people are kind enough to answer, but we're never really "justified" in asking questions like that.
Oh, well, I suppose that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteAlthough . . . is wanting to understand someone, is caring, really a mistake? Sure, I mean, gossip is wrong. If you ask so you have juicy tidbits to share, if you ask so you can judge, so you can make yourself seem better in comparison, then that's wrong. But most people just want to be understood.
The asking can show many things: concern, interest, and morbid curiosity. But it's not ever a right. You don't just get to ask BECAUSE. You are allowed to ask by the person you are asking. It's a social contract that people always accept the question, whether they answer it or not, but I really don't think anyone has the right to pry into anyone else's affairs (unless they're a police officer or something similar).
ReplyDeleteAND! The answering is never ever a right.
The person you ask can always withhold information. Even if you ask your bestest friend for the bestest reasons in the world, they're still making a concession to you because they care about you; doing something they don't have to for you just because they decide to.
I feel like people expect a lot of the things I do for them just because it's social custom, and they forget that it's a difficult thing for me to do.
So I guess this is out of that.
Thanks, Robby.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. Not even police have that right, for people have "the right to remain silent."
But they do have the right to speak-- "freedom of speech," and all. So . . . yeah. People can refuse to hear the question, refuse to acknowledge it, but I don't think people don't have the right to ask.
As for the answer-- yes, I agree. I think people are definitely free not to answer.
Excellent use of "bestest."
I know it's difficult. I know I, for one, ask a lot of you. And though I don't say it, the truth is that I'm always surprised and grateful. I spend a lot of time marveling at how much you pull from yourself when I ask you to.
Believe it or not, being honest with you is difficult for me, and I keep having to work at it. If you wanted to know.