Socially awkward situations
By blog on Sep. 6, 2009.
Aren’t they a hoot? Well, not really, but when you look back on them they sort of are…
For instance, the other night I was taking a cab home, and because I was alone, the cabbie, who seemed a nice enough sort, was rather intent on telling me his life story. Now, normally I don’t mind a bit of talking with the cabbies, it’s a good way to learn the latest news; they always seem to be listening to news on radio stations. So when he first started talking, I put down my book and didn’t try to curb the conversation with non-committal responses. This is what I usually do when I’m not in the mood to talk, or the cabbie has said something rude.
Now, this time, though, I thought the conversation would be of inconsequential things, current events, weather, sports results, that sort of thing. However, no, he starts telling me about how he’s working too much, that he’s not getting enough time with his kids, that he’s just asked for a few days off, that his back is troubling him, and so on. I really felt for the guy, all that sounded pretty damn crappy, but his conversation was very one-sided. There wasn’t really much one could say to him, that would be more than ‘that’s a bad situation’ and ‘I feel your pain’ and ‘that’s too bad’. I wanted to say more, but you can’t really because you don’t really know this person. I resorted to asking prompting questions to give the guy a chance to talk about it more.
It seemed like the right thing to do, to give the guy a chance to talk. He seemed to expect to be shut down, so I thought he deserved a chance to be listened to. We all need to complain sometimes, and I think most of us need someone to listen to us when we do it. So that was my good deed for the day, even if it was uncomfortable at the time. Now it’s kind of funny, because the guy really did talk about everything in about ten minutes. 
Category: life