I know, the next post was supposed to be sibs, part deux. And here I've gone and let myself be distracted by two totally unrelated topics. I don't care. I'm driving this bus, dangit!
So, tonight I was riding my (new) bike to work, and as I was stopped at an intersection waiting for a green light, some guy in one of those ginormous 3000-passenger vans poked his head out the passenger side window and yelled "wear a helmet" at me.
Admittedly he's right. I should be wearing a helmet. I don't deny that. But I haven't had a bike in 15 years, which means I haven't had a helmet, and I just haven't purchased one yet. I will. Soon. I concede the point. But that's not what this post is about.
Can I propose that it's bad form, disrespectful, and entirely unmannered to ever yell out the window of your car at anyone for any reason? And can we all just stop it? This is not the first time this has happened to me. When I used to run on the street, it was not infrequent that someone would scream at me as they passed. What is the purpose of that other than to make someone else anxious and unsettled? And why would anyone want to create those feelings in others for the terribly small reward of...what exactly? Don't yell at pedestrians or cyclists or anyone else. Just because you are swiftly receding into the horizon and you will not have to face your victim does not make it okay.
And to the man who hollered at me to wear a helmet, and anyone who might consider themselves doing something similar thinking they are being virtuous and kind by saving us unhelmet-ed masses from ourselves: The tone and delivery of the message often becomes the message. By shouting at me as you sped by, young man, the message you perhaps hoped to deliver was reduced to "I disrespect you," and everything you said was entirely lost. By the way, you shouldn't throw things at anyone or anything from a moving car either, and the fact that this needs to be explained to anyone over the age of about four disturbs me. And yet it seems to continue to be necessary. Thank God there is such beauty and joy in the world; without it all the meanness and stupidity would be unbearable.
In happier news, my inaugural eggplants are thriving, and they've put on their first blossoms, which indicates fruit, which makes me so happy. I love my funny little garden so much. And, the lovely hummingbird who visits my garden flew right up to me at the window today. I stood entirely still, and she just hovered facing me, right at eye level, only a foot from me. So lovely. Sometimes I think if I couldn't grow things I would wither away and die. May I never have to find out.
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