l| a time to be silent and a time to speak |l

... ...

I was at a huge mall last Friday with a friend, and something happened to us which caused us to ponder over quite seriously.

We were sitting along a staircase at the end of a long day and enjoying our gelato, when this little boy (aged about 8 or so?) came up to us and said: "Excuse me, why are you sitting here? Do you know you're blocking the way? You should sit there (points above - where the only space is the floor besides the chairs of eateries)." Something like that... can't remember his exact words.

Now my friend replied him, saying something like there is still quite a big space for people to walk (which is pretty true) and such. There were a few adults with that boy but none of them said anything. A couple of them were actually smiling, but I don't know at what.

Then my friend turned to me and asked why I didn't say anything to back her up -- not in a mad tone though; but from then on till we parted ways for home, we were on that topic which, until now i'm still pretty confused about. Ha.

Several reasons sort of 'justified' my silence:

• Technically speaking, that punk boy was right. It was a staircase meant for walking... or rolling down whichever is the preferred way.


• I could try to understand why he said that to us (despite him walking down on the other side of the staircase without having any problem nor having to squeeze past us on our side) -- he was with a middle-aged woman who had a walking cane. Maybe he saw the inconvenience we had caused and to him, we were purely inconsiderate pests.


• I like peace and think the world should spin more objectively and rationally.


But somehow, these reasons seem to argue a stronger case:

• My reaction is really slow especially when I don't usually expect that from a kid.


• I'm a loser.


• Er... maybe he's right...

I tend to get tongue-tied when such things happen to me. I can't seem to think fast enough to push my point of view through (can be quite a different case when it happens to someone else, usually). I seem to be a push-over instead. Eloquence eludes me, reaction retards and my mind speaks for itself minutes too late.

Anyways, conclusion of the matter was, we don't really wanna kill the kid's guts in speaking up and out his mind but neither do we wanna see him get himself into trouble by irritating the heck outta people next time. So maybe he could use some advice from his whoever. But actually, I would rather he learn it the hard way; if he gets it from someone else who thinks and talks faster with more animosity.

Well as for me, it wasn't really a matter of who's right or wrong. Probably a case of misunderstanding (i mean, we didn't want to be hurdles there, just that it was kinda late and wasn't crowded so it seemed like a good place to sit around~). But I guess I don't feel good because it seems like i got pushed over by a KID, and for being like a wimp? Hmmm, even though i truly believe in my rationality and the reasons i came up with to help defend him. Argh. Maybe i look too much into finding the perfect answer, at the perfect timing, to reply a perfectly stupid question.