Barking

I cannot stand noise, loud sounds, nasty, shrill voices. Troublemakers, people who like to assert themselves or think they’re funny and then, on top of making tiresome jokes, become physically intrusive or slap you hard because you’re not laughing. Am I someone without a sense of humour? I don’t think so, but I find what we call smutty humour absolutely not funny. Give me dark humour, straight-talking, eye-openers that also contain some wisdom. Just something that gives a quick-working brain something to think about.

Barking is an interesting word. In Dutch, it’s used not only for the sound a dog makes (four of my dogs cannot bark because they are wolves, all the quieter), but also to describe the way someone talks to you. If someone “barks at you” or “snaps at you,” they’re a rude person who snarls or tries to order you around. I can’t stand either. I don’t like being treated like a piece of dirt, and I’ve had nothing to do with such behaviour for years.

If you don’t want to be treated like a piece of dirt, you have to make it clear through how you carry yourself, what you project. Self-confidence is the key to success here, and above all, not needing anyone. Only those in dire straits, eager to be liked, or desperate for that specific job, accept such behaviour from their fellow humans.

And then there is a third kind of “bark.” No, not from those nasty little dogs. In Dutch, they don’t “bark” but yap (a shrill sound I’d also rather not hear and absolutely cannot take seriously, even if such a yapper tries to bite my dog or snap at my ankles, often this is fear, by the way. Little dogs don’t know they are insignificant creatures that no one really cares about and that you can easily step on. The dachshund I have is a good example of this. No one really takes him seriously, although he does well as a doorbell and barks more than he yaps).

And then there is the third bark… a barking cough, that is. There are periods when you hear people producing this kind of cough non-stop. And then suddenly you don’t hear it for years. A barking cough is certainly not good and sounds alarming, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be more painful than the average coughing fit my grandmother produced (often, by the way, just to get attention).

Stay healthy, and if sick, stay home instead of adding your share to the next pandemic.

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Prompt: see title
Picture: generated by me with gemini}