Why Are People So Ugly Sometimes?

I was at the bus stop yesterday when a man walked by with some paperwork and had apparently dropped an envelope. I didn't see it, but there was a 60-ish year old woman, well-coiffed and well-dressed, as many Spanish women are of that generation, who did see it. She had been chatting with some friends and walked over to the letter, called out to the man and pointed to the letter as she told him he dropped it. She didn't pick it up and walk in his direction, she merely pointed at it, turned and walked away. OK, well, whatever.

He came back from a ways down the sidewalk to get it. As he did I watched him, and I watched her. She didn't look at him and continued chatting with her friend. She turned the back of her shoulder to him actually. He softly smiled at her and said "Gracias," but it was very soft. After he walked away, she looked in his direction and then back at the people at the bus stop, and loudly proclaimed that in "his country they must not say thank you!"

You see, he appeared as though he could be of South American heritage. I was so steamed. It's not only Spaniards, rudeness is equal-opportunity, but why are people so ignorant and holier-than-thou? I've seen plenty of Spaniards do incredibly rude things, including her, which unfortunately started out as a semi-nice thing. So I don't know where she gets off thinking that Spaniards have all the good manners in the world. Hers were pretty despicable. I thought of all sorts of good things I could have said to her after she was gone. I wonder if these things come to me later because I'm not actually supposed to say them?