Getting yelled at

A weird thing happened to me today.  I was biking on a path and this guy going the other direction felt it necessary to roll down his window, swear at me, and call me a favor.

Luckily for me, I am so rarely the target of irrational hatred that it was more of a novelty than anything else.  But it made me think.  Because hatred, while generally unproductive, normally has a basis in something, even if it’s something inconsequential.  So does this guy hate gay people and think that bike riders are gay?  Or did I look extra gay today?  Or does he just hate bikers and thought that was the best way to get to me?

Of course I won’t ever know.  It’s possible that he is so full of hate that it occasionally just spews out in a random direction.

In the moment I yelled back “thank you”.  That’s as likely to confuse and annoy him as much as anything I think.