just because you find me interesting doesn't mean you're entitled to me

Bob Dylan once said, "Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything."

I'm so sick of people staring at me .................. or whatever it is. This may come as a shock, but I'm not out here to entertain you, at least not right now. Just because I'm out in public doesn't give you a right to invade my space which includes leering at me when I'm not responding to you--that in itself is a hint. I don't need whole families staring at me and smiling at me--I hate that, I really do--when I just want to be left to my own business. I know, I know, they're trying to be friendly and they're well-meaning. Sometimes, though--people's good intentions are worse than bad ones. Someone once made a comment that people's "friendliness" is a way of them asserting their power, something like that. It's the mask of friendliness. Beneath the exterior....if you don't respond then the niceness turns to anger and they call you a bitch or threaten you, sometimes. Is that a friend? Why should I be your friend? Why do you automatically assume that I'm grateful to have you in my life or that I even want you in it? What have you done for me? Even if they DO do something for me, that's a power gesture as well. A friendship is selfless....it's hard to attain and it's something that builds up over time. Only time will tell who is a friend and who is not. Why should I trust you? What have you done to prove your trustworthiness? People do have hidden agendas, at times. And furthermore, my life is none of your business. A true friend respects that--boundaries. You have to have standards--and privacy--that's a form of asserting your own power, or getting others to respect you. When someone has power over another and doesn't respect their boundaries--even if it's in a "friendly" way, or especially--that's a way of .............. It's worse when people say, "I'm only trying to be your friend," and appear hurt, innocent, bewildered.....than if they're outright hostile even though the hostility is underneath the surface. Underneath it all they're resentful, that you're doing something independent of them. Just my take on it. And the "innocence" on their part is a way to make themselves appear as nice even when they may not really be. Or maybe they are genuine--but I can tell when someone is and when someone isn't--when they are then I can forgive it and live with it; but many times they're not.