I know it’s rude to tell someone to shut up but at what point is it appropriate to say enough!
I find I am no longer able to apply the rules of polite society…and it’s not my fault. There are one or two people I interact with regularly who assault me with all that they know, read, saw and said to someone else on a variety of inconsequential subjects.
Sometimes I feel as if I’m spinning inside a cyclone of Facebook posts. The randomness and velocity of some of the pseudo-conversations that I have had to painfully sit through has been stunning. My head hurts just from thinking about it.
The people to whom I refer don’t realize that I seldom participate in these conversations. All I do is nod thoughtfully and insert a word whenever I feel the person delivering the monologue needs a breath.
Recently, my patience abandoned me and I found myself holding my upright hand out like The Supremes and saying STOP! I can’t listen anymore. I actually have things to do!
I didn’t mean to break the thread of what my acquaintance imagined to be a stimulating exchange in so abrupt a manner but it had to be done. I was exhausted from listening to the minutiae that was being hurled at me with no apparent end.
At some point in the recent past I would have felt badly about possibly bruising someone’s feelings. But the time is now and I just don’t care. I can no longer allow myself to suffer through banter that takes me where I don’t want to go.
Nowhere.
I am incredibly comfortable in my silence and that of others. I love good conversation as long as it is a conversation. However, sitting quietly while someone unwinds reams of information in my direction does not qualify.
It occurs to me that I might now be the subject of a post about rude people who tell other people to stop talking. I’m certain such a post will receive countless commentary about my character.
That is something I think I can handle.
just the crust 