You can be offended when I'm talking to you...

A funny little story...

A few years ago I was traveling with a friend of mine for work. We had a layover between flights so we went to grab a bite to eat at one of the restaurants in the concourse. We were waiting in line when my friend asked me "How are we on time?" I responded that it was 5:30 and that we were on schedule.

A large balding man standing nearby became very nervous and asked the man next to him, "Is that really the time?" The man responded "no... It's 4:30." The man then turned to me and with a scolding tone informed me that I had frightened him because he thought he had missed his flight. He was very angry and stood waiting for me to say something. I had no idea how to respond so I just shrugged my shoulders and turned around.

Now that I think about it... My friend and I were traveling to a city in another time zone. We had a meeting in that time zone and our only concern was the time in our destination city. The fact that we happened to have stopped at an airport in another time zone didn't really matter to us. For our purposes the time was 5:30. I knew what my friend meant when he asked for the time and he knew what I meant when I answered. The fact that some fat guy with a comb over was listening in on my conversation and didn't have all the facts was not my problem. If he wanted to know the time he should ask me or buy a watch.

I see that the same thing seems to happen pretty frequently around me. Two people are carrying on a conversation when another interrupts them to inform them that something they have said is incorrect, offensive, or untrue. Who do these people think they are? Nobody is talking to you... Mind your own friggin' business!

There are people in the world who will interpret anything they hear in the most offensive manner possible and will always assume that the message has something to do with them... Guess what? If you overhear something and you chose to give that something a meaning that you dislike... That's your problem. I don't want to hear about it. Nobody is talking to you and if you want to run around looking for opportunities to be offended you can be miserable and bitter all by yourself.

Honestly... How narcissistic can you be? What made the fat man think we were limited to a discussion of time based on his frame of reference?

So here's my new theory... If I'm not talking to you, you don't get to automatically assume you know which time zone I'm in. If you don't like the message you received, you don't get to tell me that you don't like the message I sent. If you have failed to properly decode my message... That's your problem.

You can be offended when I'm talking to you...