While I was at the grocery store the other day I noticed a fellow shopper who looked (and moved) like a frustrated bull. The store was unusually crowded, and every time he needed to negotiate through a clump of shoppers he seemed to be reminding himself that, although catching the unwashed masses on his horns and tossing them into the displays would do them no end of good, society would wrongly censure such a course, leaving nothing but baleful glares and teeth-grinding to relieve his feelings.
In general, he seemed like he was in a hurry, but he did so much back-and-forth-to-the-opposite-side-of-the-store-ing that I had been sitting by the door waiting for my roommate for some time before he showed up at the check-out lane.
He started issuing extremely detailed instructions for bagging the groceries, but suddenly broke off in despair and frustration, as though he had just heard the checker tell the bagger, “Okay now, if we’re really going to make this model of the Eifel Tower work, we’re going to need to use the bread and eggs for the foundation and save the canned goods for the final spire.” He ground out, “Oh, I’ll just do it myself!” and proceeded to bag his groceries very, very slowly. That is, it took him a long time, but he worked feverishly with fierce concentration the whole time.
When he was finally freed from doing the bagger’s job, he rushed over to pay, which also took a long time because he had to do it just so, and wanted cash back in an intricate breakdown of different bills (involving, if I remember correctly, 20 ones). The poor checker (whose line was curving around the floral department) got the money out quickly, but then had to count it back. The impatient man made “no, just give it to me” noises while reaching towards the money and making little “gimme” motions with his hand. The checker ignored the beefy hand fluttering centimeters away from his own, and counted back the whole sum (it was a lot of money, so he really needed to). The instant he finished the man grabbed the money from him and rushed off to be oppressed by inefficiency and incompetence elsewhere.
[Charity note: This post does not necessarily diagnose the bull's spiritual state. Motives and character have been supplied solely by my imagination.]
