I think I’m safe in saying that people who know me would describe me as tolerant.
When it comes to annoyances and irritations, I tend to shrug and try to ignore them.
Although, ironically, one thing I find hard to tolerate is other people’s intolerance.
That said, there are things that get right up my nose – apart from nasal spray and pepper that’s exploded from a pepper pot which I picked up mistakenly, thinking it was a salt cellar.
I get annoyed when, during a face-to-face conversation with someone, just as I start to speak after listening to them talking for 10 minutes, they’re suddenly distracted by something they consider more important than whatever I’m saying, while telling me, not entirely convincingly . . . “I am listening. Carry on!”
When it first happened to me I wondered if it was my fault for being a boring conversationalist.
But, as I hadn’t had a chance to actually say anything before the person I was with decided he needed to search inside his briefcase for something, it dawned on me it was more a case of him being ill-mannered.
I witnessed an example of someone plainly not listening saying “I am listening!” in a café just last week.
Two middle-aged couples (who I assumed were long-married) sat opposite each other.
On the table in front of them were four of those little metal teapots with lids that won’t shut properly.
One couple talked ‘at’ the other pair for a long time, then, the moment the gentleman opposite opened his mouth to speak, the female half of the talkative couple started fiddling with her teapot and her husband started trying to squeeze the last drops.
Ignoring what the man opposite was saying, she said to her husband, “We need some more hot water”, then tried to attract the attention of a waitress, before turning to the man who was valiantly trying to finish his story, and said, “Do carry on. I am listening!”
I felt like leaning across to say, “No. You’re barely half-listening!” but my innate tolerance prevented me.
Plus, her husband was twice the size of me!