One’s simple recognition, amidst those in his sphere of existence, of the facts of a circumstance presents a danger; a man’s embodied confrontation of awkward truths demands faith, for genuine behaviors may upset the egg-shell equilibrium of ethereal yet ever-present expectations. Violate another man’s expectations and he is liable to exact an instantaneous huffy revenge.

Perhaps, as a form of punishment, he shall exclude you from the office’s list of treats. Far from the object itself, what assails you are the furtive glances and mocking whispers of your colleagues, as if each observer takes a culpable pleasure in underscoring your exclusion. In this ridiculous scene, the present anguish does not arise from the absence of pastries, or even from the exclusion per se, but from the overwhelming tedium and weariness that ensue. You find yourself pondering what might have provoked such a petty act of revenge. The absurdity of the situation obscures the details, rendering the initial reason for this slight affront entirely indiscernible—not only due to your growing indifference toward the matter but because of the apparent triviality of an insecurity so insignificant that it must scarcely register with a coworker of at least ordinary intelligence (elsewise, you would not be struggling to recall it).

Adopting pretense and thoughtlessly treading the socially prescribed path likewise risks immediate agony. No more than the act of swigging, as one might do when faced with compatriots wielding a bottle of particularly loathsome rum, may bring with it divine punishment (of a rather uncharacteristic promptitude)—peradventure the remorse of a mislaid wallet after inebriated vagaries. And yet, the man in question will persist in feigning pleasure while he dances on the precipice of emptying his belly onto the road.

Is it not so?