2021
I think it was around a month ago now, on a nice sunny day, when i was walking tooth local supermarket, when i found myself to be walking up to three local alcohol / substance abuse guys who were hanging around / waiting on the pavement - one of whom was taunting / being a bit 'lippy' to a much younger, shorter, and smaller-framed, later-teen-aged looking lad - he was carrying a corner-flag towards the car that his awaiting presumed-mother was sat in...
He remained silent, and simply carried on walking towards said awaiting car during such taunting...
Which then resulted in a fairly upbeat-minded me, seemingly in a completely unbidden manner, saying 'shut the F@CK up', in a somewhat authoritative, but also still upbeat, manner - before walking up to and smiling at two of the three (one of whom was the 'lippy' one) - causing said 'lippy' one to say to me as i was passing, 'you shut the f@ck up'...
...With me simply continuing to make my way to said supermarket, whilst chuckling at his comparatively lame, and possibly predictable/expected, response - i've known them all for quite a while now...
Later inth day, whilst back at home, i found myself replaying such a scene in my head, and thinking about how such words simply seemed to flow, unbidden, from out of my mouth - such experiences are far from new to me btw - causing me to wonder whether such words had constituted some sort of Warning to/for him...
Anyway, as i was returning from one of my regular, almost daily, walkies, within a week later perhaps, i noticed said 'lippy' bloke standing/waiting onth pavement very close to where he had been stood before, with his fairly new and younger, seeming/possible 'minder-type', pal stood close to him - with said 'lippy' one jumping up and down a few times, with his knees coming up to the horizontal position during each jump - as if he was limbering up for a fight lolz...
As i was still at a fair distance away, i decided to put a 'mr serious' look on my face, and walk directly between the two of them in passing...
Anyway, as i was coming up to both of them, said 'lippy' one said, 'are you going to apologise to me or wot??? - causing me to stop between them and say, 'am i F@CK going to apologise to you' lolz...
...Which resulted in said 'lippy' one distancing himself from me, quite considerably - and his possible 'minder-type' pal moving slightly further away inth other direction, whilst continuing to look busy with his phone - twas as if he was saying to 'mr lippy' (and perhaps me also), 'nothing to do with me mate' (we had actually passed by each other on previous occasions, and at different locations, during a few of my previous walkies, so we sort of knew of each other anyway)...
Anyway, i remained stood there for a while, whilst, more for the benefit of the other guy perhaps, letting 'mr lippy' know that he had been acting like a bully on the day in question, and that i don't like bullies - and then, when i realised that everything seemed 'cool' between us all, i simply turned around/away and continued with my walk back home...
I saw the three regular guys on a number of occasions after that - noting that 'mr lippy' very much seemed to be holding a grudge / resentment against/towards me - until a couple of weeks later, when i sensed a very definite and rather sudden change in the attitude of two of them as i passed them by one particular day, whereby then-after, everything seemed to return to normal between all of us...
They have proved themselves to be a thorn in the side of seemingly many a local for quite some considerable time now - mainly due to unduly out-of-hours noise and a general inconsideration towards their more immediate neighbours apparently...
So, did such a 'shut the F@CK up', seemingly unbidden, outpouring from myself, prove to indeed be a 'Warning' to him???...
Well, about a week ago now, i was told that 'mr lippy' had seemingly done a bit of a runner from his gaff, in seeming fear of possible further within-home reprisals perhaps, after he and perhaps up to two of the others were in receipt of a bit of a beating, from some, as of yet, unknown others - and about a week or so earlier, one of the other regular three had reportedly received a bit of a slappin' from some fairly local guy, who had apparently caught him walking up his steps towards his slightly open front door, after/whilst he had been putting some rubbish in a bin located out of sight of such a front door...
...And they were seemingly/apparently up to other possibly karmically ill-advised stuff too...
...So i'll simply leave it to the reader(s) of these words to possibly answer that question for themselves...
Karma eh...
And as is often said perhaps, 'the Lord Works in mysterious ways' - well seemingly He does anyway - on occasion at least perhaps...
And as is also said, 'that which we sow, so shall we reap' (experiencing the other side of the karmic coin) - if not within this life, then seemingly most certainly afterwards, or within a future life perhaps - from my perspective, at least...
...Which also, of course, maybe of interest to those who decide to take the law into their own hands perhaps - (Vengeance is Mine (not ours), sayeth the Lord???) - time will tell eh...
...The 'Wheel of samsara' - or 'my' (possibly Inspired???) version of it anyway - whereby every act of suffering towards others results in us remaining 'tied' to such a 'Wheel', within the self-created limitations of possibly multiple lives to come (and within whatever forms such self-created limitations may take), until the fulfilling of such karmic obligations eventually frees us from such a 'Wheel' once again...
Tis all very interesting isn't it - potentially, at least...
Well it is for me anyway...
'Give P/peace a chance' eh...
Anyway, moving onwards...
I think it was about a couple of weeks ago now, that i encountered another 'pavement bully', during yet another of my many walkies...
Twas on another similarly sunny day actually - whereby i was walking down a long straight pavement which runs adjacent to a long straight road...
I remember looking up at the blue sky as i was walking, watching a seagull flying above - before then espying a fairly young looking male in the not-too-far distance walking towards me on the same side of the pavement as myself - causing me to move rightwards, in an act of generosity and consideration if you will, as i continued walking closer towards him...
...Which then resulted in him doing the same as we came closer towards one-another...
Which, in turn, caused me to then become rather more resolved/determined in my attitude towards him...
...Now noting that he was a slightly taller male, of a similar build to myself, in his perhaps late twenties / early thirties - dressed in dark trousers/bottoms and a fairly tight-fitting, short-sleeved white top...
Ooooh, well-toned biceps, and possibly straight out of the gym, observed/thought i...
...And possibly, based upon his attitude, still testosterone-fuelled also...
So, lock eyes/stares we did...
With me, saying rather determinedly as our mutual approach became much closer, 'so are we gunna collide or wot?!?'...
We didn't - he simply passed me closely by in continued silence - with us both continuing on our not-particularly-merry ways...
On the days following, i purposely took the same walk, at around the same time - for two main reasons actually...
Firstly, i didn't wish to give such a 'pavement bully' the possible satisfaction of thinking that i was purposely avoiding meeting him once again...
And secondly, if i did meet up with him again, then it could possibly give me the opportunity to ask him whether trying to bully a much older retired male, especially, actually made him feel good about himself...
Anyway - moving on to the third example of the 'pavement bully' mentality...
This one seemingly occurred during the late afternoon of Wednesday 29 September - when day-working people were making their way home...
I was gradually approaching a slightly slower-walking male from behind - he was roughly the same height as myself, with what seemed to be a fairly thin frame perhaps - and was walking on the left-hand-side of the pavement...
He seemed to be an office-worker type of individual, with a bald(ing) head - and was wearing a nice, expensive-looking black-coloured wooley-type of long winter-like/suitable coat - twas overcast, possibly rain-threatening, and somewhat breezy, if i remember correctly...
Anyway, a somewhat taller, burly individual in casual clothes, and possibly in his early thirties, was walking inth opposite direction, onth opposite side of the pavement...
Once again, he too decided to move to the other side of the pavement - then directly in the path of the oncoming office-worker type of individual...
...With said office-worker type of individual seemingly feeling obliged/forced to move rightwards, out of the way of said burly individual - in a readily-compliant sort of way, that possibly seemed to suggest that he had perhaps become used to the presence of such 'pavement bullies' - without feeling the need to stop and look back in disgust/distain...
So then, as he approached a slightly more inwardly pavement-positioned me, i found myself to be glaring/looking at him in distain - causing said burly individual to lock eyes with me as he approached...
But then, as we were about to pass one-another, he simply nodded at me, with a facial-expression that seemed to be saying 'hiya mate, how you doin' (weird eh) - causing me to disengage such a staring match (and feeling slightly taken by surprise, may i add), as if to say in reply, 'mates???, you gotta be jokin' right' - eeeh, the suddenly changing dynamics of street-life ay...
So anyway, i then put on a bit spurt in order to more readily catch up with said office type of individual before needing to cross the road - and as i was approaching him, i found myself saying, fairly loudly, 'don't these 'pavement bullies' get on your nerves some times' - to which he turned his head and verbally agreed, still within annoyance...
And that, dear reader, was where both the title, and the actual idea of writing such a blog, were both borne / came from...
So anyway, later, such a third 'pavement bully' experience gave birth to further thought / ponderings...
What if such a 'pavement bully' later found himself to be in need of the person he had acted so aggressively towards??? - what would the probable response of such a victim of such bullying most likely to be??? - would he be likely to readily embrace the other's need in an act of generosity, or would he be more inclined to (non-verbally perhaps) tell him to 'do one'???...
You see if such an incident hadn't taken place, and under such circumstances of possible future need, such a seemingly reasonably-minded office-type of individual could possibly have become a good and valued friend of/to said burly individual - and maybe they could have learned stuff from each other - or indeed become inspired by each other in some way or another...
Burning bridges unnecessarily eh - why do we find ourselves possibly prone to doing it sometimes eh - (possibly) becoming our own karmic/(worst) enemies, by planting bad seeds (of behaviour) rather than good ones...
And then the perhaps most obvious question...
Why did said burly 'pavement bully' (in this particular instance) choose to act in the way that he did??? - did he hold a general grudge (harbour resentment) towards such office-worker types due to a perceived injustice experienced at the hands of one, within his own work-place perhaps???...
And if so, why seemingly choose to tar all such office-worker types (in this particular instance) with the same brush anyway??? - we are all different, at the end of the day, are we not??? (no matter what our form of employment) - all/each with our own individual personalities, quirks, and possibly chosen ways of being...
(https://www.ourquantumparticulates.org/videos/the-pavement-bullies)