Reasons to be Unreasonable

Reasons to be Unreasonable

Sometimes we all experience uncomfortable and unreasonable feelings…

 

An agency worker has been employed at work for the past couple of weeks. Unfortunately he has adopted the exact spot on the pavement outside the building where I like to be. The spot on the pavement where I have always gone to stand (or on a nice day, to sit) on my own at break times.

 

This experience has made me realise that, although I thought I was a spontaneous easy-going person, I am in fact rather territorial and a creature of habit.

 

I have tried getting to my spot before he did but then he came and stood right next to me; too close for comfort. He also tried to engage me in a conversation about work which rather flew in the face of my concept of break time.

 

I have also tried to find other suitable spots to stand but they just don’t feel right.

 

I have therefore been reduced to random wanderings like a lost soul. Feeling bereft and cuckolded. I occasionally discretely wander to areas where I can see him enjoying my spot on the pavement. I can feel my eyes narrowing as I see him blithely eating a sandwich or making a phone call.

 

Of course I realised that these resentful feelings are irrational, that he is completely innocent and entitled to stand where he chooses. His choice of standing position was certainly not a good enough reason for me to loathe this man, and yet I did.

 

No one enjoys such feelings of ambivalence and so it is only natural to attempt to discover suitable cast iron justifications for seemingly unreasonable hostility.

 

Then I found it - perfect justification.

 

He had finished his break and went back to work a few minutes early. I meandered over to my dear old place and saw to my horror; right there on my treasured spot of the pavement – spit.

 

That dirty beast had been spitting – a lot - great glistening globules of foamy filth.

 

Not only that, he had been littering: casting his unwanted sandwich wrappers into the surrounding shrubbery.

 

I was at once revolted and elated. Although I had still lost my favourite spot, I now had license to thoroughly dislike this man and yet maintain a clear conscience.

 

As they say, “Every cloud has a silver lining”.