Quote of the Day: Jean-Paul Satre

"Man is condemned to be free."


Some random guy yelled at me this morning for looking at my iPhone while I walked. He got in my face and said, "Wake up."

I said, "Don't tell me what to do."

"Just put your toy away and pay attention to me."

"Mind your own business."

"You could have ran into me."

"Maybe you should watch where you're going then," I said.

Things kind of deteriorated after that. There was even a point in the conversation when I uttered the very mature school-yard taunt, "Just keep walking, tough guy."

I should have acted better. I need to learn not to let random stranger telling me what to do set me off so much. (You can ask my mom. I was even worse as a teenager.)


On a side note, this country was founded by Puritans and the impulse to self-righteously regulate the behavior of others is still going strong. It's just moved from sex onto to more frivolous things like environmental causes, calorie-counting, and cell phone use. (All good things, just not good things to be preached to about by people who invade your privacy.)