What's With All The Spitting
There I was, minding my own business, getting some work done on my computer, albeit partially people-watching through the cafe window, when three of them showed up. The two lads sat at the outdoor sitting area of the cafe, having purchased nothing of course, and the lass stood there talking them. All normal so far.
And then it happened. She turned her head to one said and let a blob of spittle drip out unto the paved floor. I was understandably disgusted by it. I'd never do that, I don't know how people do it. It's illegal to do that here in England by the way - spitting on pavements and walkways in public. If I really need to spit in public, I'd often find somewhere more sanitary - like into a gutter or sewer. Some people, however, not only don't seem to care, but have absolutely no awareness that there's anything wrong with it.
It wouldn't have been so bad if she'd only done it once, but she carried on spitting at the rate of once every 30 seconds. I've never seen anything like it. Within minutes the entire pavement was covered in white blobs of spittle and phlegm. Utterly disgusting. It was even more disgusting to see people walk by and step into it, especially this lady with her pushchair and child walking next to her. She even placed a bag on top of a batch of phlegm, unbeknownst to her, that she had stopped next to.
Occasionally she'd fire a bolos of spittle and barely miss a passerby. Some looked at her with understandable disgust but, astonishingly, she either didn't notice, or just didn't care. For me, this borders on sociopathy.
Yes, of course, I know there are more pressing things happening in the world and I should just look the other way and carry on with my life. first of all, however, I couldn't literally since she was standing right in front of me. Secondly, the pavement right outside the door, through which I'd have to pass to get home, was plastered in a carpet of phlegm. At that point she'd been there with her friends for nearly half an hour. At the rate of two-three blogs per minute, you can just imagine. Totally disgusting stuff.
Peace & Love,
Adé
Some people are sociopaths. There are those who vandalise things for 'fun' and we all pay for that. Most of us would not even consider doing that. I don't know what drives them to break common standards of behaviour. I'm sure sociologists have written books on it.
You're right, there's got to be a level of sociopathy involved. Many of these behavioural standards have developed from thousands of years of fine tuning for societal benefit.
In the most respectful way, I didn’t enjoy reading this piece. People’s habits seldom cease to amaze me- this being no exception. I guess it boils down to how people are raised. I know in my book, that couldn’t happen since no one around me would tolerate that. As for the general public, maybe leaving your mark is taken more literally than figuratively?