Desensitized to violence

I was standing in line at the now defunct Subway at Kew Gardens. I was in my own little world when I heard some shouting and cursing. I perceived it but I didn’t even acknowledge or pay any attention to it. I just continued to mind my own business.

At one point one of the “fighters” says excuse and zips past me. I nodded at him and he nodded at me. “Fack these guys, I’m gone.” That’s when I came back to the present and realized that there was a whole aggressive argument that happened right in front of me, and I was so mentally far away that I barely even perceived it.

That made me feel kind of sad and also worried. It’s sad because we have become so accustomed to violence and aggression here that we literally tune it out. I mean, I was standing there and just tuned out their whole fight. I pieced together that it was because the worker touched pork and was then going to make the Muslim man’s sandwich with the same gloves.

It worries me because it makes me less in tune with danger and that is always a concern. You need to be aware of your environment in these streets to stay alive. I don’t want to get comfortable enough where something like this happens. Although, given the circumstances, I’m sure I tuned it out because I didn’t perceive either of the parties involved as a direct threat to me.

But how crazy is that, I practically daydreamed through a fight in the street.