Spreading Negative Emotion

There’s a woman who’s started to come into Caffe Nero early in the morning, she’s a friend of one of the most positive people I’ve ever met who started bringing her to my haven to ‘cheer her up’.  This elderly lady exudes negativity from every pore and she has the kind of voice that carries that negativity to everyone around her including me.  Fortunately I have the option of going to Caffe Nero in Lytham and Blackpool in the morning and coming to Caffe Nero in St Annes in the afternoon.  I’m definitely taking up these options at the moment, she’s driven me away.

For a ‘change’ though I’m back in Caffe Nero St Annes this morning and she’s here and in one of her foulest moods.  Her friend is making an incredibly valiant effort to cheer her up and for the last 10 minutes it’s been fascinating to see the skill with which Ann has tried to coax a positive comment out of her.  Unfortunately with every pause of breath she’s back to her ranting, so I’ve given up and put on my headphones, listening to Spotify with the volume up.

I wonder what it must be like to be in the presence of this vitriol for an extended amount of time, much of her anger seems to be directed at the people she spends time with during the day and I can’t help wonder how much of her suffering is just a reflection of her own bitterness.

She seems to have no idea of how anti-social her behaviour is and the extent to which she is causing much if not all of the suffering that she happily spreads around, it’s very sad.

The photo today shows the view from the Beach Terrace Cafe where I will shortly having breakfast, hopefully she doesn’t follow me there.