just by being

Although thankfully rather rare there are things amongst the world's many and various contents which offend by the mere fact of their existence. Some are (or certainly should be) universal (at least amongst sensible people) such as striped shirts with white collars, modern Saturday night television and un-picked-up dogshit on the pavement. Some are rather more dependent upon the mindset of the observer such as domesticated dogs/cats, armed conflict in a world thoroughly enabled by the means of conflict-resolving communication and faith healers.

Despite attempting to empathise with the mental processes of other people with differing viewpoints to my own I'm completely unable to work out how I managed to offend someone to the point at which they ran out into the road in order to shout at me just by walking past them a few minutes ago...

As I was taking some bottles to the bottle bank I took the back street northwards rather than walking along what is usually a crowded pavement featuring ill-placed bus stops before crossing westwards. In front of a KFC there was a figure alternately standing on the pavement or leaning against the window as the need dictated. This one appeared to be drinking from a wine bottle rather than playing shite music through a mobile phone speaker ill-equipped to faithfully render the music at the volume requested or smoking but any of those are normal behaviours for people leaning against that particular window in the evening. I left a good ten feet as I passed to allow for sudden movements on either of our parts and assumed that I had successfully negotiated the obstacle without incident only to wonder after I'd crossed the road if the "get the fuck back here ya fuckin radge fuckin look at me when Ah'm talking tae yae ya fuck" was in any way directed at me. I turned round to check and got a "aye, ye" of confirmation. I hadn't gone anywhere near them. These trainers haven't started squeaking yet so I couldn't have frightened them by squelching rapidly past. I hadn't said anything. I hadn't even allowed the empty bottles in my bag to clink temptingly. Neverthless, deep offence appears to have been caused. Most odd.