Expectations.

Several year ago I ran into an acquaintance that was sporting a pretty good black eye. I had expected to see this because someone had already told me about it. Still I was mildly surprised at the magnitude of the shiner.

When I saw him he was all frumpy and indignant. He wanted my sympathy and was upset when none was forthcoming.

"What did you expect?" I asked. "You went looking for a fight with someone because you don't like the fact that he's gay and found out there are gays out there that know how to fight."

This was back in the early '80s and the gay community wasn't accepted like it is now.

When I said that he went agape.

"Seriously, what did you expect?" I asked again.

I got the usual "Yeah, well..."

"No 'Yeah, well' about it I countered. "You went looking for trouble and you found it. Again, what did you expect?"

He pouted and wandered off.

I listened to the grouch down the street a couple of years ago griing about having his property vandalized a couple years ago.

"What did you expect when you started raising hell with the kids?" I asked. "You thought that they would just go away, didn't you?"

"When I was their age I was in the Marine Corps!" he snapped back indignantly.

"You were a twelve year old Marine?" I asked.

"Uh...well, no," he replied. "But I had better things to do when I was their age."

"Like walking to school for five miles through four feet of snow uphill both ways carrying a tuba, right?" I countered.

"Uhhh..."

"Thought so," I said. "The kids were playing street hockey on a quiet afternoon and keeping a sharp eye out for cars. When they saw one they moved their net instantly and were polite and waved." I said. "I know. I passed through a couple of times while running errands. Don't try and B.S. me."

"Well, they shouldn't have been there," he said.

"Yeah, OK," I replied. "Of course, you didn't have the courage to got face to face with them and ask that they move. You were chickenshit and called the cops on them."

I added. "You annoyed the cops who had better things to do and would rather see the kids playing street hockey because it keeps them out of trouble. The cops didn't want to break up the game but you made them because you complained."

"Well, they shouldn't have been there," he whined.

"What did you expect?" I asked. "Kids. Slow afternoon. Summertime. Kids play. You expected them to sit at home?"

We go through life thinking that we can do what we want with no repercussions and are shocked when something happens.

A while ago I heard of someone's car getting torched and instead of getting upset I asked around. Someone quietly told me "He's selling drugs. The story I got was he ripped a couple of people off so someone dumped 5 gallons of gas into his car and threw in a lighted match."

If this is the case then what was the drug peddler expecting? If this was simply a case of a local not liking narcotics being dragged into his neighborhood what was the peddler thinking?

Of course most of these people are likely to experience this kind of thing again because they don't understand that actions have consequences.





   




To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY