Personal space is considered at arms length. And I prefer to keep the distance between strangers that way. To avoid smelling their bad breath flying right into my nostrils and to reduce my chance of getting colds or flu-like symptoms are two good reasons not to get too close.
The only time people would ever get within arms length of me is when my bad hearing cannot pick up a word they say. I’d find myself asking, “What?” Other times are to get to know the significant other up close and personal.
Yesterday, a co-worker had a run into some nut ball from the sales department and claimed that the person was so close both would almost seem like they were going to kiss. So my co-worker, who happens to be happily married, had to push away that person who became embarrassed. I do not know if she reported to the supervisor.
Another weird incident occurred when a co-worker of mine slammed his hand on my cubicle and became verbally loud to me that I told him off loudly in return somewhat half-heartedly and jokingly to avoid tripping him off further.
Of course, he mentioned to me that I sounded like his whiny wife and that he wanted us to get married. Some people truly need a reality check. He is divorced, of course. And I ended up reporting to the supervisor what had transpired.
Closeness is for needy people who want to have healthy relationships; while connecting is for sharing people who need to form healthy relationships. Am I making myself clear here?
Both stories above are true and happen to be good examples of how being too close in a physical sense is not very conducive in a working environment. I often wonder if the hardly reliable (H/R) people are aware that the supervisors have received complaints. But who cares, right?
Now getting too personal is another tricky scenario. With the internet being used for all sorts of dis/information sharing activities, it is no wonder that being online is more popular than ever before.
We may have found our new black box, the former television. Instead of watching media driven programming on popular cable news stations, where we sit hours on end with remote control in one hand and beverage or food in the other, we get to participate with other online users.
We find ourselves wanting to be close to certain organizations or groups of people that meet our expectations and who may hold answers to our never ending questions. I think this is called information sharing.
How do we know if what we encounter online is real if we are not there first hand to experience what the other person alleges to have happened? It’s hard to say and leaves the inquirer probably more confused than enlightened afterwards, I suppose.
For example, would anyone believe me if I shared my near miss accident on the highway with a large, black SUV, which was trying to cut me off at high speed? This blond lady has all the time in the world to speed up ahead of the far right line on northbound 880. Instead she chose to signal her intentions to piss me off. I sped out from behind her and went ahead of the slow moving traffic.
In another example, would anyone believe me if moronic kids/adults alike spat out their windows in my direction as I drove happily on the road minding my own business? I have fingered individuals many times for spitting out their windows of their vehicles.
So this goes to show, that for the most part, information provided by the originator(s) of the source(s) could be disinformation unless witnessed by more than one person. Providing visual and audio evidence is much better than testimonials. Because no-one in their “right” mind would believe a kook, a nut ball, a weirdo, right?
Copyright © 2007 by Fluffy von der Flynn. All rights reserved.
Original publication:
- Friday February 24, 2006 – 12:30am (PST)
- http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-dMLYEJo3fqqaTf8Pi2_DBUz8?p=34
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