This weekend I decided to go for a long overdue haircut. When left to its own devices, my hair will start resembling the kind of foliage you find on a jungle floor. With South Africa trapped in the middle of both a drought and a heat wave, I decided to go nice and short. This morning upon entering the office a colleague of mine took one look at me and exclaimed "You cut your hair!" to which I replied "No, I didn't". This baffled her so she said "But it is shorter" to which I replied "Yes, I concentrated very hard and pulled it back into my scalp". I realise that my response was probably a bit unnecessary but I find people's need to state the obvious baffling!
Between 2005 and 2007 I had long flowing locks that hung down between my shoulder blades. People would come up to me and exclaim "Your hair is so long!" What exactly am I supposed to do with that statement? I am quite aware of the fact that my hair is long, so it is not as if you are supplying me with information that I did not already possess! Am I supposed to say "Really? Well spotted! I never knew! Thank you so much for telling me!"
What baffles me even more is the fact that you see this almost compulsive need to state the obvious everywhere in your daily life. Let me give you a few examples:
Looking at these examples, it truly makes me believe that there is very little hope for the intelligence of human kind. And just in case you were wondering, you have reached the end of this post.....
Yep, it's ridiculous. It's like the 'Not to be taken orally' -warning on the packaging of suppository medicine. And, on the instruction page of condoms, 'Use only once'
ReplyDeleteReminds me of an incident while hiking with some awesome people a few weeks ago. After 11 km on day 2 of 3, the one guy started complaining his feet are tired. (Obvious) My patience, being almost consumed at the time for other reasons, ran out and I snapped at him, "Dude, we have 7km to go. You are welcome to turn back to last night's camp and we will gladly come pick you up by car the day after tomorrow!" It would be stating the obvious that the two of us spat at each other like angry cats for the rest of the day.
My brother loves the saying, author unknown, "Every time someone makes something idiot proof, someone else just invents a more thorough idiot."