September 14th, 2011 - Part 4
Sep. 14th, 2011 10:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewalkOn my locked-out jaunt the other day, I also came upon a couple standing with their bicycles on opposite sides of the sidewalk. She was clearly berating him for some failure on his share of parental responsibilities and by the things she was saying I assume there's some divorce lawyer backing it up. They looked like normal middle class people - just face to face, arguing on the sidewalk.
I thought about my options but there was no way I could get around them on either side. I had to go between them. I suppose they were asking to be interrupted, firstly by arguing in public, secondly by claiming opposite sides of the sidewalk. Had they been on the same side I could have just swung it wide and pretended not to hear. I said excuse me in a small voice, hunched a little, and rushed through. She paused. He made a point of saying hello to me like nothing was wrong.
I'd go so far as to say most people in the U.S. wouldn't do this. The thing that got me, though, was that they were two very average looking people. They could have been your parents or mine and they really seemed not to think it was a big deal. I got to thinking about whether something like this would happen in Japan. It wouldn't, but not necessarily because people are above fighting about divorce or even fighting in public. Maybe they would be ashamed of strangers knowing their business, or maybe they would rather run than have any discussion at all in public or in private. It's really hard to say what drives any person, no matter the culture.
I thought about my options but there was no way I could get around them on either side. I had to go between them. I suppose they were asking to be interrupted, firstly by arguing in public, secondly by claiming opposite sides of the sidewalk. Had they been on the same side I could have just swung it wide and pretended not to hear. I said excuse me in a small voice, hunched a little, and rushed through. She paused. He made a point of saying hello to me like nothing was wrong.
I'd go so far as to say most people in the U.S. wouldn't do this. The thing that got me, though, was that they were two very average looking people. They could have been your parents or mine and they really seemed not to think it was a big deal. I got to thinking about whether something like this would happen in Japan. It wouldn't, but not necessarily because people are above fighting about divorce or even fighting in public. Maybe they would be ashamed of strangers knowing their business, or maybe they would rather run than have any discussion at all in public or in private. It's really hard to say what drives any person, no matter the culture.
