Reason behind your actions
May 5th, 2009 by Ashley
So I was having lunch and supposedly studying for my essay, a strong smell invaded my nostril, the kind that you’d smell in a rabbit/chicken stack room at a country fair. I raised my head and saw a man with long curly blond hair and beard in khaki jacket with smudges on the sleeves, jeans, and a pair of Nike. Holding a cup of venti Starbucks coffee, his right hand was dirty (but his left looked respectfully clean) with long nails curled slightly up toward the ceiling. I saw there wishing him leave but at the same time wondering if I was being uncompassionate (That’s not really the word I was looking for. After all, I didn’t know him enough to determine whether he needed compassion or not. Maybe it’s his choice of life. Might you that he could afford a cup of overpriced Starbucks.) Prejudiced. There, that’s better.
Then I decided I wasn’t. If he were the way he was without the smell, I wouldn’t probably have noticed him at all. I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable or threatened (like some are extremely paranoid and frightened at the sight of a homeless) even if I had. The smell, however, made the difference. Scents are intrusive and there’s no way resisting it. The only thing one can do is to walk away from the source (or have it go away), unlike unpleasant sights, which you can simply turn your eyes away. You can CHOOSE not to look at it. Yet there’s no way avoiding the smell as long as you need to breathe to live. And breathing through one’s mouth is out of the question. Imagine inhaling whatever particles that carry the scent without at least some help of filtering by your nose hair! Therefore, it was totally justified, like we’d stand further away from someone who wears strong perfume.
It’s also interesting, come to think of it, that (some) people would do or not do certain things which are “totally justified” in fear of offending or being mistaken for someone who despises the “underprivileged” or the “disadvantaged”. For instance, as you’re about to switch to a seat by the window on the bus, someone fat sits down beside you. You might stay where you are so that he wouldn’t tale your changing seat personally. But the fact is, when you consciously make that decision, you acknowledge that being fat is something to be despised of.
I’m not trying to make out what’s right and what’s not. Just an observation.