“It’s Not You, It Is Me. Well, Maybe You, But….”

If you have ever been to the Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, you need to go.  It is all things fascinating.  Part of the experience is going into their IMAX and watching about 4 different movies on space and travel.  Just as fascinating.  
The IMAX theater is gigantic and one time, I took my daughter there and we were the only ones in the entire theater, which if you are anything like me, less people around the better.  Minutes before the movie starts, I see someone walk in and got a sinking feeling that this person was somehow, someway going to sit close to us. 
Boy, was I correct.  He ended up sitting next to my daughter.  
“Excuse me?”
“Yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“I like to sit on the back row.”
“If you don’t move, I am about throw you into the screen.”
He actually went and complained to the manager about me, who came up and apologized for everything.  The guy ended up sitting on the far side of the theater on the third row.  
That incident came back to me because a few weeks ago at the gym, it happened again.  No one in the locker room and this guy picks the locker that is next to mine. 
“Hey, you know there are other benches and lockers in here?
“Oh, yeh, OK, sorry about that.”
He went and got another locker, far away.  
Why?  Why do people do this?  Is it just me?  Or am I crazy in thinking this way?  
I understand it when a restaurant sits someone next to you because maybe sections are closed and the server doesn’t want to run all over the place.  That doesn’t bother me one iota but Lord, if someone comes close when they don’t have to, I just cringe. 
I have actually seen this exchange in a near empty doctor’s office:
“Don’t sit here, there are plenty of seats around.  You don’t need to sit there.  And don’t to sit next to him, either.  There are seats everywhere. “
It is one of the most cringe-worthy yet awesome moments I have seen in my life.  It was similar to spending the night with your best friend when you were kids and his parents are arguing and you are in the middle of the exchange.  
I read a body language book in college one time on how our body language sets the tone for what we do.  This one teacher did an experiment with a student.  During the interview, she would sit her drink close to the student.  Then the next time she drank from it, moved it a little closer.  She would slowly push things in front of her student, from her pen to her pad to anything else.  Finally, the student said, “Enough!”  Because that personal space was invaded.  The same way that pod took over Donald Sutherland’s body in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  Those under 30 will NOT get that joke and that is a shame.  
So, if you are one who does this and doesn’t realize you are committing this awful crime, then here is your warning.  
“It is not you, it is me, well maybe it is you…..”.  It is you.
@BIGJOEONTHEGO
 

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