Sometimes People Say Ridiculous Things to Me

Today a Petitioner told a room consisting of myself and my co-workers, “you people are all so unbelievably crooked.”  My first impulse was to give a schoolmarmish, “there’s no need to be personally insulting, no one here has insulted you, now have they?” admonition but another co-worker jumped in and made nice until we could get the guy out of the room.  Sometimes I’m just left breathless by peoples capacity to be bitter and rude to strangers.  It got me wondering how some of my favorite authors would reply to a statement like that.

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Agatha Christie:  Where large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody.

This is why I’m constantly trying to hide my bank deposit slip from curious eyes when I’m filling it out. True, my bank account is just about the least tempting target for any potential thief’s out there and said curious eyes probably exist in my own head, but I still stay vigilant.

Doris Lessing: In university they don’t tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.

I have nothing to add here…

Ellen Gilchrist:   Maybe you ought to get a job for the ‘Ladies Home Journal.’ They like simplistic shit like that.

I just love her. Actually I think I’m going to start inserting this quote into as many daily conversations as possible.

hipster

Nathanial Hawthorne:  What we call real estate–the solid ground to build a house on–is the broad foundation on which nearly all the guilt of this world rests.

He hasn’t even seen guilt until he’s seen a 6500 square foot house for two people to live in.  Mother Earth wept.

Joan Didion:  I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.

Ok. This one doesn’t apply to my situational rudeness today, I just really like it.