Friday, June 03, 2005

Indifference Can (at times) Make All the Difference

Have you ever shown someone "affective attention" only to be thwarted in your advances? Not overtly, mind you, but politely pushed aside? A lot of people have experienced being casually yet carefully placed into "friend mode," - an involuntary movement from a point of interest to a point of harmless. How so, you ask? Imagine liking someone and showing them your obvious feelings but there is a lack of reciprocation on their end. Imagine you doing this for a while and then you get frustrated by your thwarted attempts and you stop. You move on. And then it happens: they wake up.

They began to get used to the attention that you showed them and it did something to them. It fed their ego; it placed confidence in their storehouse of insecurity; but the strangest thing of all, it worked. Unintentionally, mind you, but still its so strange. All that work that you put in to no avail, but then because they need an "attention fix" here they are calling YOU? Wow. Talk about karma. But don't get excited, because its not YOU that they want...its the attention that you so graciously bestowed upon them. Be polite because they're fishing for what you've been up to since youve taken their precious attention away. Be cordial as they stumble over conversation that they weren't prepared to have. They've showed you their hand. You've moved on to brighter things and they come right out of the blue (pun intended). But you don't do blue anymore, do you? No. You're different, better yet (pun intended once again), you're indifferent.

And they can't (under)stand it.

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