another day, my friend and i were walking our bikes through a wooded trail. a woman stood on the other side of a creek while her dog, having just taken a dip, slinked towards me. i didn’t want to offend, so i looked to his owner to call him back. she just smiled smugly and watched as my nice white shirt absorbed swampy dog water.
“it’s a dog park,” she hissed. “the dog is fine where he is. you should move.”
common courtesy has fallen by the wayside. i had hoped we’d emerge from these many months grateful for making it out on the other side, anticipating new interactions with joy. and while this is true in some cases, the feral underbelly of human behaviour is also crawling into the light.
i wonder if part of it has to do with months of virtual communication, and the thrill of anonymous critique. if you’re willing to put your thoughts out into the world, whether in a newspaper, or on a blog, or in a social media post, you’ve got to be able to close your ears to unnamed trolls looking for nothing better than a target for their ire. it’s the price we’ve come to accept for a “connected” world.
but to see people willing to toss aside civility when face-to-face with fellow community members feels like a sad new reality i wasn’t prepared for. while my first instinct was to anger, on reflection, i wondered what could make people aspire to such unpleasantness?