He Said

He Said

he said

rules didn’t apply to him

though one wasn’t sure

if he understood the rules

he would nod

smile

when anyone was explaining them

then never follow them

he said his lack of respect

was your problem

that it was no big deal

when he did what he wanted

regardless of how disruptive

it might be

he said

politically correct is bullshit

he’d speak his mind

without apology

he’d talk wherever and whenever 

he wanted to 

to hear what others said

wasn’t his problem

shushing him at a play

was pointless

he’s take a phone call 

at the movies

turning his cellphone down

wasn’t going to happen

he said

he was a free man

and would never let you

hung-up tight-ass bastards

forget it

your thought control wasn’t for him

you could take

your control issues

and fuck right off

no one was paying attention 

any more

Freedom of choice – the rights of an individual to be an individual regardless of their impact on others. The scale of nonconformity often tips in favour of what makes us least uncomfortable – the wearing of masks is a hot button issue for so many who feel no one can tell them what do do & then back it up with conspiracy theories & screams at the authorities to do the right thing to stop this pandemic. They don’t offer what that right thing might be.

Masks are the current prime example but this indifference to others has smaller roots – people chatting on cellphones at the movie, people at live events who are forced to take even louder over the performers – asking them tone it down, or take it outside escalates into a disruption that becomes your fault for wanting to enjoy the movie.

I experienced this indifference to surroundings more than a couple of times. The worst was during a performance at Stratford when a member of the audience pulled out their android during the show to send a text – I guess they were really enjoying the play. It lit up their face & the light spilled over their shoulders for a minutes then the cell was put away only be pulled out five minute later when they got a reply to their text & began to text back. Some behind them said ‘put that away’ & the texter throned & snapped back something to the affect of ‘fuck off & watch the play’ At least that cell was on mute.

At a workshop not too long ago we were asked at the start to mute all phones. An hour into things, you know it, a phone went off & the owner gave that ‘sorry’ face & ignored it. It rang at least ten times. stopped. The leader was explaining something when it started to ring again. The phone was fished out the bottom of a backpack & the owner answered it & launched into a conversation talking over the leader. When told to go outside to continue their conversation the reply was ‘But this is an important call.’

The leader decided it was time for an early lunch break rather than confront this focus-pulling attention-seeker. I skipped the rest of the workshop. I had people to text, in private, about what had just happened.