It's okay let him have it

DISCLAIMER: I do not mean to offend anyone with this post, but I must say I was aggravated enough to blog about it. I had dreams about it. How I should approach the subject until I decided to craft it in this way.

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The other day a friend was telling us a story. He began," Acha niwaambie vile mjinga fulani alifanya...." Of course this caught our attention and we listened to his narrative. So it begins with three 'fools' bearing flashlights in the movie theatre early on a Saturday morning. They want to get their seats. It so happens that their seats are where my friend and his sister are seated. One brave young man who does not know any better politely tells my friend that he is seated in his seat. My friend's sister is ready to move, but my friend says, " Too bad. I was here first." And he stays put to watch the movie. My friend also adds that his seat has also been taken and that is why he is in that particular seat. Mind you, the theatre is empty.  Please keep this in mind for future reference. The young men opt to sit behind my friend and they displace a lady in the process. The interaction does not end there because they ask my friend to move so that their friend can at least occupy a seat near them and he refuses. He has been disturbed. After all, he came for the 7 am movie to enjoy the solace of an empty theatre.

This sparked outrage in me and my best friend which led to us being called petty and long story short I was so mad I had to blog about it.

First of all, were those young men mad when they were booking their seats? When paying for a movie ticket, and I speak for the short sighted, you want a great view of the screen, right? So why, pray tell should my friend get irritated when the young men come with flash lights to check their seats?

Okay, there will be  embarrassment. But to whom? In my opinion, it should be that person who is in my seat. If he sat and no one claimed that his ticket says he sits there then lucky him. But surely, some guyz came and yet on top of being mean he was rude to them. My friend claims that the person to be embarrassed is the guy with the ticket. The theatre is virtually empty. Why can't he go get another seat? Remember I had asked you to keep something for future reference? Why didn't my friend take the empty seats? After all, he likes peace and quiet. In fact, he should have moved away to another spot if he likes the feel of being alone in the theatre. This is the point at which we were called petty. Is fighting for what is rightfully yours despite how small it is petty? I think not.

This same pal o' mine is the same one who will remove an elderly student from the seat he had reserved and spend the whole lecture thinking about how he has done wrong. Yet, without batting an eyelid, he shall steal from someone by taking his seat which he particularly paid for and watch the movie. I told my friend that this was ironic and quite frankly displaced priorities for lack of a better word.

I told them about reservations in a restaurant. If you came and found other people at your table whether or not you had paid for it, it was your right to get what you had asked for. The people who are to be embarrassed are not you who reserved the table or you who were led to the table, but the restaurant for failing to take instructions. My friend talked about the cost of inconvenience if the restaurant decided to seat them elsewhere. I won't go into that argument here because it was a long one.

Bottom line is, people are different. One of the two comrades we told that story to sided with my pal and even added how it probably was the dudes' first time there. Lol. The other was even at pains to figure out where the problem was. I could be petty. I could be wrong. But hell, if I find you in my seat at the theatre regardless of whether you think I am making a fool of myself, you shall find another seat and I shall eat my pop corn and sip my soda without giving you a second thought.