Too distracted or just incapable?

Are you so distracted by your gadgets you don’t know what is going on around you, or are you so self centered you don’t give a damn about anything beyond your own person?


There have always been people who just don’t think beyond the immediate ONE absolute priority in their life at any given moment; whether it be crippling chest pains or that one strand of hair that has fallen out of place.

I seem to have been blessed with more of these obtrusive obstacles than usual lately. Is there an Oblivious epidemic that is more virulent than the West Nile Virus going around? Has the proliferation of distractions reached the saturation point? Or am I just too damned lucky?

Even I am guilty of being the person in front of the elevator that ends up having to step aside to let someone off before I can get on. We are all subject to the dumb luck of waiting on the same side that the only passenger happened to stand on. So I don’t give it second though when my own exit involves a side step. But three people elbow to elbow, 6 inches in front of the door? Really, people, how did you expect to all entered at one time, even if I hadn’t been waiting to step off. And don’t just glare at me – one of you has to step back. It’s logistics, people!

Then there are the people walking along looking at their latest electronic leash instead of where they are going. The walk way is wide enough for 3 – 4 people and has two way traffic. In the U.S. we drive on the right side of thorough fares, and most of us walk that way too, except where there are cars and pedestrians sharing the same one. So why, when everyone else in front of you are keeping to the right and there are others approaching on the left, do you move to your left as you get closer? Do I know you? Are you trying to stop me for a conversation? You are slower than those around you, so you are not moving left to walk around anyone. LOOK UP! Watch where you are going! Why should I have to dodge you? The phrase use to be, if you can’t walk and chew gum at the same time; choose. These days it’s, if you can’t walk and text (or even talk) at the same time you need to stop one or the other.

But my all time favorite reached a pinnacle this morning; inspiring this tirade. My own mother used to be one of those infuriating people who walks through a door and stops. Stops while blocking the door they just came through for anyone that might be behind them trying to do the same. Even in elementary school I knew never to do this. Not only does it anger other people trying to use the doorway, you are liable to get knocked aside by a door (if it’s one on hinges), or by something worse – someone without my manners, who just shoves you out of their way. At the worst, when blockaded by these people in their own little world, I just glare and stomp past them. But today, I actually put a shoulder in to a man. Intentionally, no, but without any regret whatsoever. This large mass of sub-par intelligence stopped for a call on his cell phone at the top of an escalator. He not only was still on the metal grating where the escalator meets the flooring, he had not even stepped to one side. One half of his mass was blocking one half of where I was required to step as the elevator reached the top. I started to call to him before reaching his level, but decided to just simply step around the moron. But I misjudged the clearance and my shoulder hit the back of his arm – hopefully the one holding the cell phone to his ear. I don’t know because I didn’t not even look as I continued past him as if nothing happened. Trust me; it was in his best interest that I pretended to be the oblivious one at that moment. No one wanted to hear the dialogue regarding his action that was coursing (and cursing) through my mind.

Please, if you are able to stand and walk, but doing maxes out your ability to multitask, please don’t push your limits in public. Choices are hard to make sometimes, but for the sake of the rest of the public, practice walking and talking at the same on your own – in private!