Ten-Finger Exercises

pardon me, but your attitude shows

I've been thinking a bit more about being offended and being offensive, and the old line, "Pardon me, but your slip shows," came to mind. (Does anybody wear slips any more? Does anybody care if anyone's underwear shows? Or is that offensive to some people too? Probably.)

(Second paragraph, same digression: I've seen strapless outfits in church with bra straps clearly showing-- along with a lot of skin. That is a mite offensive, but I don't feel offended by it. I just chalk it up to bad taste and bad judgment.)

The thing about being offended, to me at least, is that the action or remark has to be somehow personal, and directed at me to offend me.

Here's where I was headed for with this post script topic. Our underlying attitude about a person or situation may well show without our even knowing it. Like when I told the priest I used to work with that I blogged. His response was, "Whatever for?" accompanied by a look of complete scorn. Now, I'm fairly sure he didn't mean to be offensive, but he was. He had a track record of making similar statements, either to me or in front of me, (but not to, or in front of, everybody.) The fact that I heard him be just as tactless with other people, just as disparaging, did point to a character flaw that he managed to conceal from the people he wanted to impress. I didn't take his remarks as personally after that, but have always been sorry he didn't care if he impressed me.

Funny thing is, he now has a blog of his own!