not necessarily now

“I can’t believe you’re making me do this,” the man said. Even though no one was forcing him to do anything, he started to do the thing he didn’t really want to do but had pledged to do. It was a trifling job that required, at most, ten minutes of full concentration.
“We’re not making you do it,” the others replied, puzzled looks creasing their faces.
“Yes you are!” the man ejaculated, the color rising in his cheeks. “You’re making me do this because you asked me to do it earlier, and because you’re all looking at me and expecting me to do the thing I said I would do - at some point - not necessarily now.”
“Then don’t do it now,” the others replied.
“But if I don’t do it now,” he said, momentarily abandoning the task and standing up so as to address them face-on, “you’ll keep looking at me with expectation on your faces, with silent judgement lurking behind your gazes, and I can’t stand that type of pressure.”
“We won’t think less of you if you don’t do what you said you would do, what you agreed to do in exchange for what we already did for you,” the others said calmly.
Again he abandoned the task, which was almost finished, and sat down, dejected. “This is taking so long, guys,” he said. “I have better things to do.” He pulled out his cellphone and started mindlessly paging through social media apps.
“The reason it’s taking you so long to complete this task is that you keep interrupting your own work to complain to us that you’re doing it,” they said. “Based on your comments, we now assume you never intended to keep your word and do the thing you said you’d do in exchange for what we did for you.”
Realization dawned upon the man’s face, only to be suffocated by his acquired habit of complaining, whining, and blaming everyone else but himself for his lot in life. He bent once more to his labors.
“There,” he said, stepping away from the task and throwing down the tools he’d used to complete it. “Are you happy now?”
They stepped forward to inspect what he’d done. “It looks like you did a poor job of things, meaning we’ll have to spend our own time fixing your work. Plus, you didn’t clean up your tools, meaning we’ll have to gather them up and put them away, ourselves.”
“It’s all vinegar with you guys, and very little sugar. Consider that the last nice thing I ever do for you.”

[The author has himself witnessed a similar exchange, and thinks that this text highlights the self-centered  and short-sighted tendencies of many Westerners living today.]

americanifesto / JPR / whorphan / 場黑麥