RememberEveryone is Watching!


We were shopping for groceries in an upscale market in Kuching when my wife directs my attention to a man scratching his butt. He was standing in the aisle, not a side aisle but the main thoroughfare with people coming and going all around him, and he had his hand inside not just his pants, but also inside his clearly seen underwear, which by the way, was a dull red in color. He was accompanying his wife, but standing there aloof, having himself a good scratch, as if he had no care in the world. Im sure he does this sort of thing at home all the time. He didnt seem bothered by the fact that people all around him, including us, were giving him, I-cant-believe-youre-scratching-your-butt-in-public look.

Were shopping for food mind you. Imagine all the items, like fruit, he may be casually touching or groping, once he stopsassuming he ever does stopscratching his butt.

Yes, at times, we all like to think that, like children, were clever or invisible, that no one is going to notice us as we quickly, casually (so not to draw attention to ourselves) pick our nose, our ears, and even our butts (though not all the way inside our underwear) in public. But everyone is watching. And if someone is not watching, you can be darn sure that someone will point it out to them, or tell them all about it later, once they get home or back to the office.

I admit, I was even tempted to take the mans caught-in-the-act photo and put it on YouTube
Let it go viral, so the whole world will know that this man failed basic etiquette, hygiene, obedience, common sense school, and that his parentsshame on themnever taught him to go out in public in dirty underwear just in case he dies, let alone scratch various parts of h! is body when others are looking.

As writers, we tend to notice stuff like this and work it into our writing somewhere, but so does everyone else. How can you not notice a man standing in the middle of an aisle his pants half pulled down, showing large portions of his decrepit underwear, with his left hand jammed inside of it, scratching a way. We could probably even hear him scratching, the sound of his nails brushing over the fleshy skin, streaked in red by now, over his buttocks if we chose to concentrate. Knowing this guy, Im sure once he was done, he probably brought those same fingers to his nose and had himself a good sniff. Then hell grab a box of cereal or an apple, and ask his wife, Do we need this?

So when youre in public, and this goes for childrenwe have two small ones who are known to do an occasionally disgusting act in front of others that makes us want to disown themplease think twice before you do what your body urges you do to because, believe it or not, everyone is watching, and these days, everyone has a camera on their phones, and they can even be pretending to talking loudly to all their friends, when in actual fact theyre snapping your photo and shouting that out to the world.

By the way, this applies to how you dress, whether your zipper is up or down, whether your jeans really do need a thorough washing, and even your ranting and raving in your blog posting because youre having a really bad day and you want to take it out on the world. Yes, you may be ranting and raving in the privacy of your own room, but in fact, youre as public as that man standing in the aisle scratching his butt.

After we quickly as possible made it around this man so we didnt have to watch him anymore, the writer part of me made ! me look back at the end of the aisle before turning the corner of my life, and yes, he was still scratching his butt, oblivious to his surroundings, and yes, everyone else was watching, eagerly waiting for his next disgusting move.
Robert Raymer, Borneo Expat Writer

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