Staring is Rude

This post could be construed as the continuation of a previous post, but I prefer to think of it as an original grouping of thoughts...so you think of it that way too, 'kay? 

Am feeling rantful today due to the fact that a person CANNOT walk through the halls of this hospital building without being visually assaulted.  I'm minding my own business and pushing the noisy metal mail cart through the ground floor halls (which, by the way, I'm convinced holds a secret bunker full of experimental body parts...why else would temps be sub-Arctic?)  where one has the opportunity of encounter all manner of humanity.  Much of said humanity smiles, nods, and greets you in the typical friendly Texas manner.  While I appreciate these kind vocal gestures, quite honestly, I'd prefer to be ignored.  Still, kindness is theoretically its own reward, so I shan't obstruct the kind individuals who prefer to earn those groovy reward points from collecting their due.

These well-meaning people comprise approximately one third of the types you'll find wandering and/or sitting thereabouts on the ground level of our building.  Another third of the visiting population really DOES ignore the hades out of me.  Whenever I pass someone in the hall and they treat me as an invisible nonentity, I want to take their hands and bless them many times over.  But since that would require talking and the consequent revelation of my presence/existence, I instead mentally bless them in a vehement fashion.

Alas, this celebration of The Silent must now be interrupted by the intrusion of a third group of people oft encountered 'midst the chilly labyrinthine passages below my sandal-clad work feet: those who stare incessantly without reason or consideration.  One might assume that I'd forgive them this mortal sin as long as they didn't speak to me, but one would assume incorrectly.  As aforementioned, I'm walking down the hall and blithely pushing my cart along its rickety, squeaky path whenever I encounter a member of "Satan's 33 1/3."  No matter what, they stare from the time I (or anyone) comes into their eyes' focus, and then they literally turn their head to continue this visual infringement of my/anyone's personal space as I/anyone walk by.  What really melts my snowcone is when there's two or three of them in a group, and the entire group stares, turns, and continues staring...like that three-headed, slobbering dog monster in Harry Potter, only atonal harp music won't make these people stop staring. 

So do parents these days simply not teach their children that staring is rude?  Maybe it's because there's no smartphone app for it.  Or maybe no fun-but-instructional blu-ray disc exists to teach said children such things via video screen in the back of the SUV on their way to baseball practice.  Or maybe Sony needs to devise an action-packed, blood-and-guts video game depicting the consequences of illicit staring...gaze too long at any particular person for no good reason, and you get disintegrated by a Romulan disruptor...and so does The Princess!!

It all comes down to common courtesy, and while the super sweet people that energetically insist on saying "hello" or "good morning" do annoy me at times, at least they're demonstrating the fact that their parents did indeed teach them manners...and that they bothered to learn the lesson.