The two sides of a coin

I’m walking down a busy street when my phone vibrates. I’m expecting a text and so I slow my stroll enough to reach into a pocket and pull out my phone. As I’m doing this, the person behind me grunts. Their pace is temporarily impeded by my decreased speed, and so they further expresses their dissatisfaction by shaking their head as they pass by.

Ugh. What a moron. Already five minutes late to meet a friend, I’m hustling down a busy street in my neighbourhood. The space on the sidewalk is next to nonexistent. Suddenly, the person in front of me slows down to pull out a phone. They are oblivious to their surroundings and I almost run into them. They don’t apologize, just smugly check their precious messages while altering everyone’s route around them.

Ugh. What a moron. The subway car is packed with people. In the rush to get on, I don’t take my backpack off, and even if I did, there’s no way I’d be able to hold it in my arms for seven stops, and putting it on the floor of the train would take up even more space that simply isn’t there. As the train embarks, I lose my balance for a millisecond and brush the person next to me. They overreact like they’re just looking for a reason to get offended, like they need an outlet for their general dissatisfaction with life. Oh, give it a rest. I had to stay late at work to put out yet another last minute fire. And now, I’m trapped in a car with innumerable other sardines. Whenever we stop at a new station, someone tries to squeeze themselves in. At one stop, someone wearing a backpack bullies their way onto the car. Of course, when the trains starts up again, the backpack slams into my shoulder.

Oh, give it a rest. My partner’s friends have to be the laziest couple I’ve ever met. Every single time we get together, all they talk about is the vacation they’re taking and how they “never take their work home with them.”

What are they doing with their lives? My friend’s marriage is so boring. Whenever we get together, all they ever talk about is work. Both of them work more than 40 hours per week and they never stop to ask themselves why they’re working so much.

What are they doing with their lives?