Synchronicity

After another evening of basking in the sunshine, James and I were watching a programme about his all time favourite music - Pink Floyd. I happened to mention that it's a very long time since we have seen the film "The Wall", and James said "Well, you might see it sooner than you think because I have just ordered it on Amazon." David and I immediately exchanged glances, because here was an example of something that David calls "synchronicity" or "The Bader Meinhoff effect", which means that an unusual coincidence has occurred. Yes, I know that the film "The Wall" crossed my mind when we were watching a programme about Pink Floyd; that is not the coincidence - the coincidence is that James had JUST ORDERED the film! It's synchronicity!
I was reading some blogs when I was in the garden and there was a reference to an argument that had taken place on the comments section of another blog. I followed the link and found it to be quite interesting. A woman who has a blog about design had posted that she had just bought some nail varnish. Nothing interesting there. However another blogger had written a comment along the lines of "Your business must be doing well for you to afford such expensive nail varnish! Ha ha just joking, I like it." the Design blogger had then responded to say that she found the comment to be unhelpful and passive-aggressive, she felt that women should not snipe at other women who have worked hard and are doing well. There then followed a huge discussion from other people, most supporting the design blogger, and a few thinking that she was being a bit hard on the person who made the comment. It has certainly given me food for thought. I can see both sides (typical me) and I felt sorry for the person who made the comment and then got so heavily criticised, but on reflection I have had quite a few of these "passive-aggressive" comments over the years. A good example is when I did chartered teacher which I worked very hard to achieve and which I did think made me a better teacher. One of my (ex) colleagues said in seemingly friendly tones "Well Susan, you've certainly done a lot of paperwork." It was said so pleasantly that I didn't even realise how rude it was at the time. There was a lot more than paperwork in achieving chartered teacher. And when Jamie got into medicine, the Mum of a boy in his class said "It's a lottery!" when they heard the news, which was untrue and insulting but said with a smile and a laugh. What a cheek. Again I just sat there not knowing how to respond. I wonder if everyone gets remarks like these or if I just seem like such a wimp that some people think they can get away with saying anything to me! I have to say though that these people are very much in a minority of all the very nice people that I am lucky to have met in my life.