It happens to be dinner time, and I am eating AND watching this TV series. In one of the scenes, this guy is going about telling people that he is a cop/a Fed/a spy, whichever is convenient in the situation.
At best, people throw a confused look, and at worst, they exclaim, “Oh yeah? What’s with the accent?”
Naturally, in a world these people can make sense of, a Fed/cop/spy can’t have an accent. It just doesn’t sit right.
Of course, I take it personally. After all, where’s the fun in watching something if you don’t picture yourself in the protagonist’s shoes. It’s freakishly easy for me to create this world in my mind, where I am this guy, and people are mocking my accent.
If someone said that to me as they did to that guy, I could see myself reacting in either of these two ways:
- Start bawling like a kid right there, which is quite embarrassing considering the grown-ass woman that I am
- Smack the perpetrator in the face
As you can see, both of these reactions aren’t ideal and rightfully sit on two ends of the situational response spectrum. Both of them reflect a lack of maturity and emotional resilience to differing degrees.
I consider a middle route between the two, maybe just tears welling in the eyes and me slapping the perpetrator lightly on their face, but that response seems even more pitiable, so I drop it off my simulation.
Thankfully, my attention returns to the show soon enough, and I catch the guy’s response to the perpetrator.
Poker face followed by ‘Oh yeah, what’s with yours?”
What the hell! Why didn’t I think of that!?
Sense returns to me eventually, and I have this epiphany, “Who doesn’t?”
Take that, perp!
Friends of Words 