You know how you can be walking down the street and you run into one of those awkward situations where you are approaching a person and they are walking toward you and that weird sideways shuffle starts to occur as you try to figure out how not to run into each other when there is at least four to ten feet of available walking space surrounding the entire scene.
This odd shuffle dance is something most people can empathize with and have experienced at least once or twice on a yearly basis.
The awkwardness that ensues as you finally figure out how not to make walking a contact sport and pass each other usually results in a puzzled head nod or quick apology before hurrying on and quickly re-establishing normal ambulatory patterns.
This phenomenon can occur in almost any setting.
Not only are sidewalks and roads subject to walking shuffle dances, but movie theaters, aisle ways and pretty much any kind of hallway or passage.
Public school settings are a massive clockwork of movement and potential run ins or shuffles.
This is not always the place where you want to have this happen though.
In quieter rural areas, if such a thing happens too often with a particular person or to a specific individual, then a reputation for clumsiness can result as long as it happens on a frequent basis and does not get associated with any particular person.
If by chance it does happen whenever around a certain someone, than the rumors may start to fly and the urge to never see that person again may be a result.
This is an awfully hard thing to accomplish in a small town where everyone knows where you live, who is in your family and what you do on a daily basis.
In a city setting, this type of shuffle dance can result in similar results.
However, there usually has to be a certain amount of popularity in order to get a rumor chain started in a larger school setting.
Instead, the thing to watch out for in a shuffle dance is gang rivalries.
If they are prevalent in an area, body language and coded signs are a huge part of the culture.
Unwittingly shuffling with the wrong person could mean having to back peddle and hope the explanations of ignorance are enough to keep you off radar as long as the shuffle dance does not occur again.
School settings with the crowded walkways and hallways can be like a bacterial breeding ground for shuffle dance instances.
Similarly, public restrooms have some of the same tendencies for causing the shuffle dance to happen on a regular basis.
Whether it is around the hand dryers or soap dispensers, the design of many public restrooms requires a lightness of feet when they are crowded in order to avoid unnecessary jostling.
If the sinks and soap dispensers are working properly, then the movement around those usually moves fairly quickly.
However, hand dryers, though environmentally friendly, often take a little more time to do their magic and finish off the squeaky clean hands.
As a result, there can be the equivalent of two different types of lines operating in the same restroom, and they are often moving in opposite directions.
This can be a little problematic and result in the shuffle dance around the hand dryers.
The hand dryers are not at fault.
It is natural to place them near the exit because people generally want to leave as soon as their hands are dry.
Trying to coordinate an incoming line that needs view of open stalls while accommodating the intricate shuffle dance that finishes at the hand dryer before walking into oncoming traffic in order to exit the premises can be difficult.
No matter how long people practice, the shuffle dance is likely to continue for at least a few more decades.