sciamachy: an act or instance of fighting a shadow or an imaginary enemy
Stripped of all its karmic connotations, poetic justice can be a beautiful thing.
Take for instance the tale of a young Arabic man who, in the course of executing his duties as a loyal employee of a local service station, witnessed a come-uppance of savage proportions.
It seems that a most irate customer, on being given the wrong change, exploded into a vitriolic rant, cursing both the competence and intelligence of our Arabic friend. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded to know, "are you an idiot?!"
When no answer to these unanswerable questions was offered our irate customer stormed out of the service station, and, in a fury of (self-)righteous indignation and condescending intellectual superiority, proceeded to drive his car into the very first wall he could find.
The damage to car and wall amounted to several thousand dollars worth, no trifle when compared what was at stake earlier, that which sparked the initial outrage, a mere dollar - and irony turned itself out.
However, and much to the credit of our Arabic friend, it must be said that there was no ill will on his part - after all, he figured, suffering some verbal abuse is a small price to pay for such free, unbelievable entertainment. And, frankly, any noise, even bad noise, is welcome relief from the droning ostinato of wage slavery.
it all means so much to us
Written on Tuesday, 5 October 2004