Wednesday, September 25, 2013

"Foot in mouth syndrome"

I observed the following on the bus today.  There was an old lonely man on the bus who was really only riding so he could force conversation on whoever was sitting near him.

The man really never shut up for about 20 minutes or so.  He was seated next to a woman 24 ish who was with 2 children.  A girl baby, and a girl of about 2.5.

The man kept touching the baby and making comments and forcing the preschooler to interact with him.  The 2 year old made a face like "will you please leave me alone?"

The man kept grabbing the babies arm and saying stuff like "look at those big muscles"  At one point he said

"How old is your baby son?"

mother-"My baby son is a baby daughter"  (in fact the baby was wearing pink)

man to mother-"Oh, whenever I see a Navaho baby I assume it's male!!!"

(Every day I witness multiple behaviors, sights on the bus and bus stops that shock me and this was one of them.  I do not thing the mother perceived this man as discriminatory thank goodness but I perceived him as mostly incredibly naieve and like a lot of people just looking out for his own personal agenda and that is to allay his loneliness)

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