NOT QUITE SENTIENT, A MONKEY

There were several things in my head when I woke up this morning. Among others: a cross section of a leg looks probably like a slice of dry-cured salami with a large white spot near the centre; a kidney schematic; and Chinese people, especially if they think in Chinese, tend to ignore one and take one for granted, but often don't consider one a person.
If one happens to be non-Chinese.


The kidney diagram relates to something during my grammar school years. My parents gave me a fascinating book about human anatomy when I was eight or nine, I read through it with avid interest, internalized the illustrations, and at one point explained to my classmates how the urinary system functioned, with helpful handdrawn diagrams. The next day I got called in to the headmasters office, where once it was clear that no filthy pictures had been involved, the headmaster explained that parents had been disturbed, and their precious little shites were not ready for such things yet. Do me a favour, and don't do that again.

Y'all are lucky that I didn't talk about the squidgy bits.


In Dutch: Nieren, urineleiders, blaas, plasbuis.

Please remember that these are frightening terms, not suitable for little Catholic kiddiewinkies in the south and their ignorant parents, bless their hearts.


The Chinese thing comes in because of a recent restaurant experience. The waitress delayed considerably taking my order, one part of my meal came fifteen minutes after the first part, and I had to wait more than twenty minutes for my bill to arrive after I asked for it. Chinese customers who came after me got attended to right away, the old geezer at a nearby table ordered the same food as I did, considerably later, but it took mere moments to get it, and several customers who arrived well after me had eaten and paid before I did.
I had ordered in Chinese. And they know me there.

At first it didn't bother me very much.
Maybe the kitchen had a bad day?
And I wasn't in a hurry.

But it's been eating at me. I think I'll avoid that restaurant for a while.
See, I'm probably not a full person, and can't be interacted with.
So it's not worth pretending that I'm human.



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