This happens to me more often than I'd like. I'll be walking from one place to another, in places I normally walk and which I have every right to be in, when my sudden appearance frightens someone. Today, for example, I came in from our backyard and opened the door with a flourish. "OH MY GOD," said Julie, almost dropping a slice of buttered toast. "YOU SCARED THE **** OUT OF ME." What should one say in that situation? I always apologize profusely. But this amounts to apologizing for
existing (in that particular place at that particular time), and that doesn't seem fair.
Dear frightened ones, I know you have no control over your sympathetic nervous system. But as your heart rate is returning to normal and you're picking toast up off the floor, it would be kind of you to take a little ownership in our awkward exchange. Maybe you could say it wasn't my fault. That it's actually kind of normal to want to come in from the backyard on a chilly spring day, through the only door that permits this, whether you knew I was out there or not.
Maybe?
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