Not Everything Is A Personal Attack, Ma’am

This story might have been more “entertaining” had I engaged, but I seriously did not want to deal with the cray-cray. I also realized that nothing good would come of me saying a word. This is just a tale of when NOT to react.

I was sitting on the bus to get to work this morning and sat in a row just in front of a woman and her baby. The baby was being a little noisy, but I didn’t care.

As I was reading Not Always Right, the baby, who’d been quiet for a little bit, let out a loud cry, which startled me, so my body instinctively jumped. I may have looked at the lady through the corner of my eye, but I honestly don’t think she saw that. I then went back to reading.

I heard her start talking passive-aggressively about me.

Woman: “How could a person jump just because a baby cried? Haven’t they had babies or grandbabies? They must have been scared to have jumped like that…”

She just wouldn’t shut up, so I moved a few seats away. Then, she called me a racist.

Eventually, I moved to the front of the bus, and I could still hear her going on and on about me. Remember, I never, ever said a word back to her. I can only imagine the earful I would have received had I said anything.  

The point of the story is that sometimes it’s much much better to just let someone ramble on and walk away. I will also say that I now understand why, when I was younger, I did engage with the narcissists I was surrounded by. It took a LOT of self-control to not engage.