I was thinking about how some things never leave you. For example, I believe there are certain New Yorkisms that never quite leave that native, no matter where they end up.For me, it is what I like to call the "MOVE BITCHAZZ" ism. No matter where we go,no matter how long we've been away from the NYC, no matter what the local etiquette is on our vacations: We want. People. To move. The fuck. Out. The. Way.
With the exception of those who genuinely cannot help it (the elderly or disabled)all others people need to get it moving or get out the way. Perfectly normal people, with perfectly normal legs and vision should be able to kindly step aside instead of impersonating a pinball.
Occasionally I feel bad. I should be the nice,lovely,polite lady everyone thinks I should be...but the bitch bubbles under the surface, seething, thinking mean nasty things I wish I could just say aloud.Which likely furthers my frustration. This is why punching bags, gun ranges and credit cards were invented.
I couldn't help but think,is my bitchiness purely my New Yawk upbringing or is this probably caused by natural personality variations? AKA: Type A and Type B personalities. Remember those? The war between the laid back and the live-wired. Most people like to say they are Type B since Type A was seen as the more dysfunctional and likely to cause physical illness due to their workaholic, impatient disposition. However, Type Bs can be seen as apathetic, disengaged and well lazy. So clearly neither is best because if the world was Type As we'd all die early from all the stress and if we were all Type B's nothing would ever get done because nobody would think the stress was worth it. Still, Type As get a bad rep.
We are the ones burning holes in the back of your head when you are casually texting while walking like a fucking snail and not bothering to clear a path. We are the ones who skip the small talk at the grocery store so we can actually just get home quicker and eat the goddamn food we just bought. In other words, we don't stop to smell the roses. And if you tell us to try it, we'll tell you to shove the roses in your ass.
It seems like we are inundated with messages to "be happy". Take a vacation, eat more food, see more shitty movies with no meaning,smile more, spend more money on shit you don't need because it will make you happy. I haven't even begun to touch on the sexist, racist, ageist, classist intersection of these messages but I will leave that for another day.I do think Type As are misunderstood. There may be some unpleasant traits because they do not see the point in just chilling out sometimes. In fact, forcing them to stop and relax may cause more anxiety because they'll be thinking about all the stuff they could be accomplishing with that time. So what's wrong with wanting to get shit done? The key is how you handle situations of failure or disappointment. Do you marinade in self chastisement or figure out how to make it better and keep moving?
Basically we live in a society where many of us are pushed to fit in a box that honestly feels too tight and too opaque. Yet there is such a conflicting push to make more money so we can actually have the time, space and ability to do all this "enjoying". Wtf?
Personally, I may get annoyed sometimes by some fumbling tourist or texting teens but I do genuinely respect all people as fellow living beings on this earth with an equal right to pursue whatever the hell they want as long as they're not hurting anyone else. I do however, often feel us humans seem to enjoy oppressing each other in ways big and small.
So in closing, I support all those who want to stop and smell those roses and whatever else you want to do with them. Just do the rest of us a favor and smell those fucking roses on the side of the road, I'm trying to get somewhere.
