"You're so mean"
"Do you always have to be mean?"
"Why do you have a twisted response for everything?"
"You can never give a
straight answer to a question"
And similar other reactions to
who I used to be. And how I used to be. I'm still a lot closer to that person I
used to be...just that reactions have gotten altered. And getting till here has been a
crazy ride, to say the least! It just unnerved me to no end that I didn't know
why or what was provoking me to spit out responses the way I used to...though
the intention was never to offend. NEVER.
Then television came to the
rescue. And I first saw Chandler (from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.). There was something I could now relate to and
others would see similarities with.
Sarcasm.
For the longest time I was a
lone sarcastic being amidst other non-sarcastic beings. Hence all those years
of being miserably misunderstood.
So Chandler didn't make life
easier. Rather I'd just found a starting point. A starting point to explore a
world beyond.
Next person to the rescue?
Bill
Watterson.
If not him then there'd be no Calvin, no Hobbes. And what would I be
then?
What a six year old munchkin and his imaginary tiger provided to my at
times weak levels of confidence in just 3-4 panes is hard to put down it words.
This world helped me find
similar, less nobler souls like yours truly who reveled in sarcasm not as a
means to insult (unless you choose to give me a reason on a silver platter),
but to find humour.
As a consequence, I found wit
and with it, irony -- again forms of sarcasm only less razor sharp. Gradually
even more subtler forms such as satire.
Along the way, I found people
who got what I was implying rather than just saying. Who cracked up as much as
I did when I was taking digs at someone else or even myself. More myself.
In the process, I've realized I'm not diseased.
Today conversations are to the
effect of:
"How come you don't have a sarcastic retort?"
"I know you're itching to say something. Just say it."
"That grin of yours says everything."
I'm almost synonymous with
sarcasm so much that heads turn in my direction if remedy is being sought to a
dumb response!
No post that has the word sarcasm in it, goes without me being
tagged to it.
What to my mind is bizarre is the number of converts I've come across (or perhaps enabled).
Or even the part
where I'm told that I ain't as sarcastic. That I should be mean-er. That I've
actually mellowed down.
Hahaha -- how times change!