Passive a-something

Something there is that doesn't like a passive aggressive personality.

http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/frost-mending.html

It's not a brilliant title. It was actually stolen and re-worded from the first line of a Robert Frost poem.

For those unfamiliar with the passive aggressive personality, here it is in the proverbial nutshell :

Passive-aggressive behavior refers to passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following authoritative instructions in interpersonal or occupational situations. It can manifest itself as resentment, stubbornness, procrastination, sullenness, or repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is assumed, often explicitly, to be responsible. It is a defensive mechanism and, more often than not, only partly conscious. For example, people who are passive-aggressive might take so long to get ready for a party they do not wish to attend, that the party is nearly over by the time they arrive. Alternatively, leaving notes to avoid face-to-face discussion/confrontation, is another form of passive-aggressive behavior.

I think about it today because I had a blind date who doesn't live near me. He agreed to meet me at a half-way point. Since he knows the terrain better than I, I asked him to pick a spot. He hemmed and hawed and I heard his reluctance to commit, so I told him to call me the day OF and give me an address. When it came to the three hours before the date moment, I just called and got his voicemail.

"Sorry," said I, "but I don't think I can make it. I have a back ache." Believe it or not, I actually DID have a back ache. But what irked me most was his seeming inability to pick a place to meet. I mean we're talking a cup of coffee... Denny's, Winchell's or even the dreaded STARBUCKS would have been acceptable.

So I think I shall chalk this one off the list of potential suitors/gentlmen callers!

C'est la vie!