Some people are just nice
Nov. 17th, 2017 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaI seem to spend a lot of time when out and about thinking something that basically boils down to "honestly, why do people have to be such dicks?"
The other day, I was on the tube. (It was the Piccadilly line, westbound, somewhere around Knightsbridge if you like your anecdotes more detailed.) I had a seat, but people were standing. The tube lurched, as tubes do, and the guy in front of me (white, 30s, unshaven, wearing a massive rucksack) windmilled his arms frantically for a surprisingly long time before overbalancing and falling onto the guy opposite me (black, 20s, hat pulled low over his eyes, headphones in).
Falling Guy immediately bounced back up again, turned round and apologised profusely. Seated Guy, despite having just taken a rucksack to the face, laughed, and said it was no problem.
The wild windmilling meant I'd noticed that Falling Guy also had a plaster cast on one arm. I guess that makes it hard to hold on, so I offered him my seat. No, he said, it was fine. He'd only fallen over because he was being an idiot, and had got caught up in whether to save his phone or his arm when he lost his balance. He was going to put his phone down and hold on with his working hand.
Later, after I'd got off the tube, a woman (tall, mixed race, very smartly dressed) and I were both being a bit phone-absorbed and had a collision outside my local supermarket. I was loading my shopping list before going into the shop-with-no-signal (I don't know what she was doing). The collision wasn't serious, but I managed to kick her shoe off her foot. I apologised profusely, and she laughed and said not to worry, I'd made her feel "just like Cinderella".
See? All over London there are people who are being given ample opportunities to be dicks, and are not taking them and are instead being nice people.
The other day, I was on the tube. (It was the Piccadilly line, westbound, somewhere around Knightsbridge if you like your anecdotes more detailed.) I had a seat, but people were standing. The tube lurched, as tubes do, and the guy in front of me (white, 30s, unshaven, wearing a massive rucksack) windmilled his arms frantically for a surprisingly long time before overbalancing and falling onto the guy opposite me (black, 20s, hat pulled low over his eyes, headphones in).
Falling Guy immediately bounced back up again, turned round and apologised profusely. Seated Guy, despite having just taken a rucksack to the face, laughed, and said it was no problem.
The wild windmilling meant I'd noticed that Falling Guy also had a plaster cast on one arm. I guess that makes it hard to hold on, so I offered him my seat. No, he said, it was fine. He'd only fallen over because he was being an idiot, and had got caught up in whether to save his phone or his arm when he lost his balance. He was going to put his phone down and hold on with his working hand.
Later, after I'd got off the tube, a woman (tall, mixed race, very smartly dressed) and I were both being a bit phone-absorbed and had a collision outside my local supermarket. I was loading my shopping list before going into the shop-with-no-signal (I don't know what she was doing). The collision wasn't serious, but I managed to kick her shoe off her foot. I apologised profusely, and she laughed and said not to worry, I'd made her feel "just like Cinderella".
See? All over London there are people who are being given ample opportunities to be dicks, and are not taking them and are instead being nice people.
