He took it very hard.
Daniel: "Hi. Would you mind if I worked in one set?"
YMCA member*: Silence. A short pause. (In a soft voice) "I was just preparing to do another set."
Another short pause. "(And) You should have asked me a minute earlier."
Daniel: (Stunned) "You're supposed to let other people work in when you're doing multiple sets."
Mike: (Taunting and still softly spoken) "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
* A neatly dressed middle aged man, well-built, serious about his physical regimen whom Daniel has noticed vaguely before at the YMCA but never actually spoken to. Later, Daniel finds out his name is "Mike."
* * * * *
All Daniel had wanted to do was to work in one set of reps on the exercise machine that the other guy had been already been on for already perhaps five minutes, resting a long time between sets.
Afterwards he felt confused, in a tangle of anxiety and anger. He got little or no empathy from the staff person at the front desk of the YMCA. For her, it might as well have been he that had been unreasonable and rude. In fact, he got a small earful of how the guy not allowing Daniel to work in was no different from his own spending three hours swimming in the medium lane (This logic, in retrospect, did not seem to "hold," unless she meant that he stayed on the inner side of the lane, leaving the wall-side to a new swimmer, which seemed to be the "custom" anyway, one he respected).
Yes, it had to do with Daniel's personality. He didn't like being told what to do, especially when it was a reproach or criticism.
And when he was being taunted and "not taken seriously." The other guy had spoken to Daniel in a tone of casual derision, confident and sardonic.
He took it very hard.
If it had been decades earlier, he would wanted to tell someone not only what had happened but how he felt crushed and humiliated.
A lesson in manhood. And humanity. He had grown up with it.
And, in fact, no one could "make it right" for him.
Daniel: "Hi. Would you mind if I worked in one set?"
YMCA member*: Silence. A short pause. (In a soft voice) "I was just preparing to do another set."
Another short pause. "(And) You should have asked me a minute earlier."
Daniel: (Stunned) "You're supposed to let other people work in when you're doing multiple sets."
Mike: (Taunting and still softly spoken) "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
* A neatly dressed middle aged man, well-built, serious about his physical regimen whom Daniel has noticed vaguely before at the YMCA but never actually spoken to. Later, Daniel finds out his name is "Mike."
* * * * *
All Daniel had wanted to do was to work in one set of reps on the exercise machine that the other guy had been already been on for already perhaps five minutes, resting a long time between sets.
Afterwards he felt confused, in a tangle of anxiety and anger. He got little or no empathy from the staff person at the front desk of the YMCA. For her, it might as well have been he that had been unreasonable and rude. In fact, he got a small earful of how the guy not allowing Daniel to work in was no different from his own spending three hours swimming in the medium lane (This logic, in retrospect, did not seem to "hold," unless she meant that he stayed on the inner side of the lane, leaving the wall-side to a new swimmer, which seemed to be the "custom" anyway, one he respected).
Yes, it had to do with Daniel's personality. He didn't like being told what to do, especially when it was a reproach or criticism.
And when he was being taunted and "not taken seriously." The other guy had spoken to Daniel in a tone of casual derision, confident and sardonic.
He took it very hard.
If it had been decades earlier, he would wanted to tell someone not only what had happened but how he felt crushed and humiliated.
A lesson in manhood. And humanity. He had grown up with it.
And, in fact, no one could "make it right" for him.
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