Civility

Lis and I went to see ‘War of the Worlds’ this evening. Loved the movie. Nice epic feel to it. One of my top three apocalypses (the others being ‘Road Warrior’ apocalypse and Zombie films). As for a review of the film itself I’ll defer to Salvius. This blogpost is about the guy who stepped in three fourths of the way through the film…

So, this guy sneaks into the movie about three fourths of the way through the film and sits a few rows behind Lis and 3XHAR. This does not particularly bug 3XHAR because in his youth I’m sure 3XHAR did something similar. Guy then begins to munch loudly on popcorn. Now, if you’ve seen the film you’ll realize that for 3XHAR to hear Guy munching Guy must be munching pretty loudly. The movie is loud, with many scary noises, things blowing up, screaming, etc. Anyway, what 3XHAR hears is: stuff blowing up, munch, munch, munch, screaming, munch, munch. Very Homer Simpson. Still, I am a man of peace and Guy has not hit 3XHAR’s critical mass for a Civility Correction.

Then Guy’s cell phone rings. And not just rings, it plays a little song. Loudly.

When critical mass for a Civility Correction is reached things proceed very rapidly. I whipped out of my chair, took two giant strides to Guy, put my face about four or six inches from his face (all I could see in the theater were these two big fried-egg eyes) and said, “Please, do not let me hear that again.” I said it sternly. I then returned to my seat.

Guy left a few minutes later. Probably had to take another call.

Now, there are those who say people are less civil than some nebulous time in the past. 3XHAR does not believe this is true. I think there have always been uncivil folk. I believe that new gadgets just allow new and novel ways to express your incivility.

I also believe that if left unchecked, people who are prone to incivility may be obtuse enough to not even know they are acting inappropriately. Hence, the need for Civility Corrections.

Old Phoner

Last weekend I went to a favorite breakfast place for some 3XHAR Time. I sat, I ate, I read and I watched and listened to… people. There was this little old lady (Old Phoner) who, despite plenty of non-inhabited dining space, sat down directly behind me (a sign?). She got on her cell phone and began calling people, one after the other. During each call Old Phoner asked the person on the other end of the call to pray for an acquaintance of hers. The acquaintance had a wide range of bad behavior and bad judgments from what I could hear, and I heard a lot: addicted to sleeping pills, pregnant, addicted to sleeping pills while pregnant, yells at people, expects people to help her out with little or no thanks, is lazy, and doesn’t go to church.

Now, I’ve never received a call from anyone requesting that I pray for anyone. This is sensible because the call would almost invariably turn into one of those calls that the Mormons used to have to suffer through when they used to call me. HARHARHAR.

Prayer. Explain this to me. In Old Phoner’s case, she was asking people to beseech the Almighty Dog, Creator of the Universe, Omniscient and Omnipotent, to do what? To have Dog intervene and change Bad Decision Girl’s luck? Or to interfere with Bad Decision Girl’s free will? Either way, I thought Dog had a plan. I’m always told that things happen for a metaphysical (as opposed to a physical) reason. Well, if Dog has a plan, then all the prayer you could muster won’t change it, right? I mean, things are going according to plan, so why waste your time?

The other kind of prayer I hear about is more like a thank you note than an index card in Dog’s suggestion box. ‘Hey, Dog, thanks for having my chute open when I jumped out of that plane.’ If the common conception of Dog is that Dog is omniscient (all knowing) then Dog already knows you’re thankful, so, again, why waste your time?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking any religion to make sense, I’m just saying I’ll start believing in one when I find one that does.