I am thankful for the blessing of loving others despite how disagreeable they make themselves. Throughout the day there are going to be irritations, major and minor. I might even be one of those irritants, and likely, I am. We seldom know, much less care, how we affect those around us, especially when we're out in public, and it is our selfish and chronic self-absorption that we really need to get over, if we really want to coexist well.
My tranquil afternoon walk today was almost ruined by such irritants. I now enjoy Friday afternoons off and like to take advantage of the extra time to go out and walk. Today, following a walk over the bridge and a stop in the local art store to buy pencil crayons, the annoyances slowly began to build up. What helped get me off to a bad start was receiving the sad news of the death of yet another tenant in my building. My building manager, who was being harassed by a campaigner from the NDP (I will be voting for this party this provincial election, despite my opinion of the candidate in my riding), was unable to furnish me with more information, making it more difficult for me to figure out which tenant it was who had died.
There was the couple tailgating me on the sidewalk. There was plenty of room for them to walk around me and they simply didn't bother, so I stopped, turned, and said to them both, "I do not like being tailgated." They did look a little bit shocked as they got the hell out of my way, but I think they both merited and needed that little slap in the face, so, no apologies coming from me. Then I had to let another tailgater ahead. She was a lone Asian woman and saying anything would have been too much like bullying, so I just let her pass and walked slowly behind as she was able to get further ahead. I also didn't want to be unjustly thought of as being racist, and some people from visible minorities will play the race card if a white person calls them on their bad or insensitive behaviour. and a lot of white people, such as myself, often feel cowed by collective guilt and political correctness so we try to be all the more careful not to give offense.
When I got up into Shaughnessy I thought it would be an ideal day to sit on a bench in the Circle Park. But there was a woman playing catch with her chocolate lab dog, and another woman behind me yapping on her phone, then this white guy just on the other side decided to play jump rope, so there wasn't much in the way of tranquility. But I reminded myself that this is public space. Still, it is not a dog park, so I might have ratted the dog woman out to the authorities. I only didn't because the dog seemed harmless. If it was a pit bull I likely would have made the phone call. Then, as I got walking there were the instruments of audial torture, or leaf blowers and weed whackers, courtesy of gardeners tending the local estates. Well, why should I complain? They also have a right to make a living.
I still made a point of not letting any of this get to me, remembering that these were also people who were getting on with their day and their lives, and who knows what any of them might have thought of me. I stopped in the local Shoppers to buy milk, then ran to catch the bus. There was only room in the courtesy section and I began reading a poem in transit above the opposite window about someone striking up a conversation with the stranger seated next to them on the bus. That was when the stranger next to me, who had not seen the poem, began talking to me, asking me about my day.
It was an interesting conversation and either this elderly gentleman is the hero he is making himself out to be, and really is providing high tech businesses with support on making their appliances such as phones and listening devices cancer proof, or (as I suspect) he has mental health issues and I was being treated to his delusion de jour. It didn't matter. He was friendly and wanted to reach out, and it was very kind of him to invite me into his life if but for five minutes.
Despite the rude woman of size who got mad at me for touching her bag while trying to get past her as I was getting off the bus I have decided to view this day as a success. I might still be feeling rattled and irritable, but I have seen beautiful places today and I have been privileged with meaningful glimpses into the lives of strangers, some of whom will help me to learn compassion. And I am still feeling sad about the death of my neighbour today.
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