Acts of courtesy
Jan 9th, 2007 by Peter
A few days ago one of my friends and I were talking as a common acquaintance dropped by. My friend asked the acquaintance about her Christmas. The question you ask pr. reflex to be polite, but you really don’t want to know. The acquaintance is new to him, and he didn’t know what was in store.
5 minutes of incoherent one-way Christmas ramblings later, I could tell that my friend looked quite drained for energy and struggled hard to keep up the polite charade.
She finally took off while we were left puzzled to what had just happened. I just gave him a big grin and said:
“That’ll teach you to ask next time”.
My guess is that that particular acquaintance will remain one of that, and never become his friend. Just like as she is to me. I learned my lesson too in the past.
I bet he won’t ask her again. Some people just need attention really bad. This one sure can’t separate interest from politeness.
My friends, family and a few others I’ll ask, but this is a genuine interest. Maybe I’m considered rude by acquaintances and colleagues, but I rarely ask if I don’t really want to know.