Cutillion

Humans are weird. Some traditions that we have are quite funny if you think about it. I was at dinner tonight and two of these social mores occured and I actually thought about them for once, and they were just goofy.


- After dinner, everyone knew my grandfather was going to pay the tab but my dad pulled out his wallet as if to pay. He knew he wasn't going to but it would have been improper to act (not act like he was going to pay) on that knowledge. So society says, my dad had to whip out the wallet and get in a pseudo argument until the waiter brings the check and hands it to grandpa - which everyone knew was going to happen anyways.
- Similar, is how we are told to accept payment for menial service. The whole act, "No, you don't need to do that....well, if you insist." We all do it -- it's just funny. We know we are going to get paid, but we have to act like its superfluous - even though its not.

The things that drive us to action are weird. We're obviously influenced by society's standards - or else we wouldn't feel awkward simply accepting payment for watching the neighbor's dog. And society's standards are just flat out strange. It's like there's this golden rule regarding proper acceptance of a favor - argue with the person, "put your wallet away dad, i'm paying." After that we express how unnecessary their proposal is and why, "you're our guest, we're treating you tonight, c'mon i got it." then sigh "sigh" and thank them, "thanks dad."