At Least the Guy Yelling Into His Cell Phone Stopped After a Few Minutes

As I type this, I am having trouble concentrating.

I am in a Starbucks in Houston, Texas, and current van trouble warrants me being in Starbucks in order to write this blog. It is one of the bigger Starbucks I've been in.

There are five customers here, spread throughout the store. I am in the corner typing this blog at a raised stool and counter. Twenty feet away from me, a relatively young couple are quietly reading/working. Between us, two strangers are holding the loudest conversation in the history of Starbucks, completely unaware of the people around them.

Look, I've had many a conversation at Starbucks, but I've at least made sure to keep my voice down. In this instance, the man and woman, 24 and 35 respectively (I feel like I know them now) have been carrying on a conversation for nearly half an hour DESPITE THE FACT THAT THEY ARE SITTING OVER FIFTEEN FEET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!

Not to sound like a curmudgeon here, but if you're going to talk to a stranger in a public setting for an extended period of time, especially when people near you are clearly trying to read and write, how hard is it to move to one of the many open seats right next to each other and bring down the volume to a reasonable inside level?

The reason I bring this up is not because I can't deal with the noise (although I still hear every single word despite putting on Bose noise-canceling headphones) but because I think it represents a bigger issue that I think merits exploring.

The two in question are clearly educated, reasoned, thinking individuals. I know this because they have brought it up several times during the conversation and made a point to demonstrate their finer intellect. They have also have made a point to bring up how egocentric our society is, how uninformed and unaware we are, and various other issues they have with a perceived lack of common decency.

So essentially, they are acutely aware of widespread cultural and human character flaws and regard them with concern and dismay, but are seemingly incapable of recognizing similar flaws in themselves.

Basically, it is your everyday coffee shop conversation among proud intellectuals who profess many strong points, but undermine those points by displaying them in an overall manner that comes across as more pretentious and self-aggrandizing than an "Inside the Actor's Studio" episode featuring John Malkovich.

I am fully qualified to recognize this scenario because I am often guilty of participating in it.

But when we turn our eye to the bigger picture while ignoring our part in it, we do ourselves a disservice. Nobody respects the lumberjack bemoaning deforestation as he chops down a tree. It's infuriating to listen to a politician railing about the dangers of partisan politics and mudslinging by pointing out how often the other party does it. And it's really difficult to listen to these people rail about common decency while yelling their virtues across the room.

Which reminds me, how obnoxious are those blogs that rant about banal minutia and mild disturbances like the world is coming to an end? I mean, get a twitter account, for God's sake!