People are weird . . .

I’m sitting in the chapel at church, waiting for sacrament meeting to start. I’m having a nice conversation with a friend and a missionary, when this guy sits down on the chair in front of me and starts talking to me.

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned this guy who, out of the blue, asked me to explain magnetic flux? Same guy.

This time, he’s asking me about how energy is dissipated – heat, radiation, and what else?

This guy still didn’t bother introducing himself. As far as I know, he doesn’t know my name. He doesn’t say hello, how are you, or any other customary polite greetings.

Nope.

He just plops himself down in front of me and demands that I explain this to him.

I tell him that we’re at church and this is not an appropriate time or place to discuss this.

So he asks again what this means. He just wants an explanation.

I tell him again that this is not the time or the place. I’m focusing on church right now.

So he asks me again if I could explain it.

I ask him if he has a teacher or a tutor. He should ask them.

He then goes into this song and dance about how he needs to know for a talk he’s giving in church.

What? You’ve got to be kidding me.

It’s on the Creation – you know, formation of the planets, Adam and Eve.

What the heck? So what? It’s not like technical stuff like that belongs in any kind of a talk, which I say to him.

He then asks me other questions, like how should he do his talk. I tell him to talk to someone in the Branch Presidency.

He asks me again to explain this stuff. I repeat myself about how this is not appropriate time or place.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! SHOULD I JUST BASH MY HEAD INTO THAT BRICK WALL OVER THERE??????

Finally he goes away. I think I used the "it’s not the right time or place" line at least six or seven times. It was getting tiring.

One of my friends, after I told her about the conversation, said that I should have just mentioned that I was married and keep harping on the fact that I was married.

It didn’t even occur to me that that might have been what this was about. The guy trying to hit on me? Are you kidding? I mean, this is just the absolute worst tactic possible. But since she mentioned it, yeah, she could be right.

If that guy approaches me again, I’ll be telling him to leave me alone and never ask me any question like that ever again. I’ll also then be having a nice conversation with yon Branch President. When someone insists on having something explained despite repeated protests, this becomes harassment. I should be more clear if it happens again.

One of the problems, of course, is that in the culture I came from, it was expected that women would always be nice and polite, regardless of circumstances. We’re not taught to say things like "piss off. You’re irritating me." But men seem to have no problem saying things like that. Take my brother Tony for example. (Hi Tony!). No problem there. He’ll tell people to piss off just because he’s bored with them. Not saying that his behavior is perfect, but why should guys get away with it and not women?

Author: LMAshton
Howdy! I'm a beginner artist, hobbyist photographer, kitchen witch, wanderer by nature, and hermit introvert. This is my blog feed. You can find my fediverse posts at https://a.farook.org/Laurie.

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