Life As Performance Art 68

I had a nasty encounter with a nasty person yesterday. This well-dressed, not quite middle-aged, woman very narrowly passed me from behind on the sidewalk on her small bike. I said that a warning would have been nice, and I said it politely. She replied "You didn't deserve it." So, for the next couple of blocks, while she dodged and almost ran over other pedestrians, I roundly chewed her out for being so rude and disrespectful. She called me a psycho. I replied that she has no business making an amateur diagnosis, that there is nothing wrong with my mental health and I work with people with mental health disorders. So, the spiteful little hag tried to get her revenge by getting me on her phone and putting me on YouTube, and I really don't care because I neither said or did or gestured anything to be ashamed of or embarrassed about, but Gentle Reader, should you come across such a video, then now you have my side of the story. Yes, there are bad people in the world, selfish, miserable self-obsessed and self-adoring narcissists. They litter our pavement like uncollected dogshit. They are a complete waste of time and energy to engage with because it's all about them, and other people only exist for their pleasure, utility and aggrandizement. We can only accept that they, like their very close cousins, the psychopaths, are an unfortunate consequence of our very imperfect and broken humanity, and simply to be kind to them, or maybe just civil, but otherwise avoid them. Not always easy, given how, as I mentioned already, they tend to litter the pavement like uncollected dogshit, but there are ways of not stepping on them, and I am thinking of yesterday's incident as yet another reminder of how important it is at times to keep my mouth shut, given that there will always be among us the chronically unteachable. On the other hand, she got her ass kicked, she deserved it, likely needed a good ass-kicking, and I did it, and for this I feel absolutely no shame. But the balance of the day yesterday was still enjoyable and still positive, and I am deeply moved by the presence of the many good and kind people that I have in my life and often engage with throughout the day as strangers on the sidewalk, the bus or in coffee shops or elsewhere. Now summer, the season of joy is upon us, if maybe ten days early, but the weather is warm and very lovely and we are still surrounded by the vibrant and luminous green that is June. There is nothing to lament, although there is, as the song says, that Summertime Sadness, and some people's depression gets only worse in the lovely weather. I think it is helpful to not assume that everyone I encounter in the day is going to be happy and joyous. We all carry with us our baggage, and those burdens accompany us throughout the day. I try to remember this in my encounters with others. There are some who simply have no conscience, and that woman on the bike might be such a specimen, so such people carry on all happy joy-joy no matter how much harm they leave in their wake. But I am challenging us, Gentle Reader, to try to see and understand and love the wounded walking among us, just as we are also needing to be so seen, understood and loved by others. It is not an easy discipline. We are often in too great a hurry to get through our day, but that cannot be used as a get out of jail free card. There is so much that is damaging to the human spirit, and somehow we have to see to our own healing and wellness, while also attending to the very similar needs and wounds that are carried by others. This fortunately is not impossible. In fact, our wellness is dependent on our caring for one another. We are designed to love and nurture. Even the narcissists and psychopaths that fester among us. They also, and especially, need to be able to become fully human.