From time to time when I was a kid, I'd be sitting there, reading a book, minding my own business, and some grownup would walk in and say "Turn a light on!"
I'm now the age that my parents were when they had children, and this doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever! How does it even occur to a person? You walk into a room and...evaluate the suitability of the light levels for some activity you aren't even planning to engage in? Why would you think that a person who knows full well how to operate the lights wouldn't adjust the lighting levels if they were uncomfortable? Why would you think you know the appropriate lighting level for someone else to engage in an activity you're not doing when you don't have their eyes and aren't engaging in their activity?
At the time I chalked it up to grownups being weird, but in retrospect I'm baffled!
4 comments:
Oh boy. I do this! Now, to my partner! Although I am more likely to just turn a light on than to say "Turn a light on!" - and he usually says, "Ah, better". Once in a while someone does the same thing to me, and I actually appreciate it. So I think I may know what your parents were doing.
Are you able to articulate what drives you to do it?
(Although I should add that turning on the light yourself is far less assholic than making someone who's perfectly content stop what they're doing and turn on a light that they don't feel they need.)
Well... I have a habit of sitting down to read and getting so absorbed that I won't realize the light has changed and I'd actually be much more comfortable with more light. Or I stop to read a few words in bad light, then get engrossed and keep reading.
I see Allan do the same thing - or I think I do! I walk by and he is reading in poor light, but too engrossed to get up and turn on a light, or he thinks he'll only be there for a few seconds, so why bother. So I turn it on - thinking I am doing a nice thing. (Although your post makes me question that assumption.) He usually expresses relief or mumbles thanks.
I can't pretend to know what your parents were doing, but does this sound at all familiar?
I have no idea. I think this is another reward centre I'm lacking.
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