Warning: this is a self indulgent narcissistic rant and a lesson in self control, even if the other guy was a prize twat. You've always got to make allowances for twats because you just can't second guess their behaviour...
Went for a cycle down the lanes/cycle path after dinner. It's a little habit I have while the weather is pleasant and the nights aren't too long. Helps me think.
Unfortunately that particular lane, for a while, has been used as a toilet for many of the dogs walked by inconsiderate owners, despite a campaign to draw attention to it's unpleasantness (as if you'd need such things). There's also a lot of vandalism that goes on up there which I cannot explain: some people are just hellbent on shitting on their own doorsteps - and so are their dogs.
Anyway this one guy walks past while I stop to have a ponder. At this point I suspect he has a dog with him, though I can't quite see. He walks past, no problem. I don't see a dog until the tiny little thing jumps out of the hedge beside me forcing me to brake hard.
"For fucks sake mate, I nearly flattened your dog!"
He doesn't even turn around: "fuck off you twat."
I lose it. Not a good situation to be in with an anxiety and stress problem. I've lived a life of being on the shitty end of the stick, albeit in small ways, many times. It wears you down, blunts your patience and sharpens your sense of inequality. I don't use it as an excuse, I should have walked away. But there are times when that sense of personal injustice takes over. I'm not proud of it. I speed back to catch up with this clown, I'm incandescent.
"Fucking hell mate your dog jumped right out in front of me"
I can't remember the exact words of the interchange. He thinks, clearly, I'm just behaving like a jumped up moron. He doesn't seem to care that I nearly killed his dog and seems visibly inconvenienced that I'm daring to challenge him. He walks off and I call him a cunt. He then turns around charges toward me fist raised and almost..."what did you call me, you cunt."
"Oh it's ok for you to call me a twat then is it."
Yeah it's pretty stupid.
Nothing either of us should be proud of, though I doubt he cares. He didn't seem too bothered i nearly killed his pet. Didn't even stop to look back when I first cycled past just to make sure his dog didn't get in the way (and I'm not exactly rocketing past like Carl Fogharty).
A ridiculous situation you'll agree I'm sure, but that's how it is these days. The male psyche has been manipulated and twisted into this monster. I'm not blameless, but it's just typical of people round here now. It used to be a nice place. People have grown selfish (dog owners uniquely so) and just don't care anymore. I'm sick of it. Despite my stupidity in not walking away when I should have, I don't provoke trouble; I smile at folk, mind my p's and q's and happily step to one side to let people past. I also don't shit all over the cycle path either.
What's happened to our society? Years of greed, manipulated aspiration, rolling news, twenty four seven media programming have bred a nation that cries when it's team loses and then embarks on a rampage, its kids go on the riot while the keepers of laws break them repeatedly and with impunity. Is there a point of no return. Have we passed it?
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