Panic over non-events: the high price of self-absorption.

As I posted yesterday, the Pattersons get all gobsmacked over non-events because I think, and this is just me, that they fear disgrace and humiliation. The sickening part is that they do so in vain. They may think that the neighborhood expects perfection of them but that's just not so. Most of the things that alarm them are just not that big a deal, really, and would be met by others by more appropriate reactions. Imagine, if you will, a group of Pattersons out in public. Someone does something that makes another think that the mask will slip away and they'll become laughingstocks, thus eliciting the trademark horrified glare. They're too worried about what other people might think of their lapse in control to realize that no one especially cares. If they realized that those who they think would accuse them would probably at best sympathize with them, if not outright ignore them, they'd have something to be gobsmacked about: they aren't the center of the commuinity they think they are. They'd have to reacquaint themselves with the notion that they are the plain folks they want people to think they are.