Nice People are Idiots... Merry Christmas!!

Brugge is the happening place in Europe over the holidays. Maybe 20,000 people showed up at its winter festival to see the ice sculptures and shop. This story revolves around the 1000 or so that made their way up the huge castle tower to get a bird's eye view of the whole town. More specifically it's about all the nice feelings and inclinations one might have in the spirit of the holidays... about a really nice guy that I was stuck behind on my way down the steps of the tower. Now, THE RULE, as far as unmentioned but socially acceptable rules of climbing towers goes, is that for ever time you pass someone on your way down (making them wait on the side), you let the next person pass you on their way up (by waiting off to the side). 1 for 1. The nice thing obviously then must be to let everyone pass and wait off to the side every time, isn't it? The nice guy, spirit of the holidays and all, a so-called manifestation of all that is best about Christmas, blah blah blah, was far and away the nicest and most patient of anyone on the stairs that day. The problem with nice though, is that every quote I've ever heard about it says it's not the way to go... "Nice guys finish last" comes to mind... "Nice only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" is another off the top of my head... and this guy was definitely not playing hand grenades... no, no, no, being nice did not work for him today... because the line going down always, always, always waited, backing up all the way to the top of the tower... and the line going up always, always, always went, logjamming people half way up the tower. In summary, the whole top half of this tower, with stairs big enough for only one person to walk up comfortably, suddenly had two people on each stair, one wanting to go up, one wanting to go down. And all waiting on this nice guy who revelled in his own niceness and was still waiting on people to pass him, even though those people had nowhere to go. On par with the similar idiots on a two lane street that nicely stop to let a car or pedestrian cross the street only to be hit by the car in the second lane.

Moral... sometimes the worst results come from the best intentions...