Perspective
Today I went out to try and get quarters to do my laundry. My laundry room in the complex doesn't have a quarter machine and I didn't have enough lying around the house to do the loads that needed to be done, so I decided to go get more. This was much more difficult than I expected it to be, mostly because there aren't any banks nearby to my house and, I had to walk. Now, I'm not embarassed to be walking because I know that I'm walking because I fucked up and now I don't have a car anymore. Big Deal.
So I walked towards town, hoping to find some place that would give me a roll of quarters. Most of the places I passed I suspected wouldn't carry quarters (i.e. hotels, car dealerships, pool/spa sales, insurance agencies) so I didn't stop to ask them for any and instead kept walking. I tried Jiffy Lube, and they would have given me some, but they didn't have any. And even though they were checking me out, they still were treating me differently because I was walking, not driving a car. Two more places, a shell gas station and a Napa auto parts store and the treatment got worse and worse. They were treating me like I was a beggar, a homeless bum with no house and no car. In fact, they were acting like I was just asking them to "give" me a roll of quarters, not "trade" for the $10 bill I was carrying.
Still I trudged on, feeling like I wanted to cry for being treated in such a way...but I still really did need quarters. Finally, I found a local pizza place that was willing to give me quarters, and he was friendly about it, but even he waited until I actually pulled the ten out of the clutch before he would put the roll of quarters anywhere near me.
Then, walking home, it hit me. Is this the way I treat people that I see walking? When I see somebody walking near a busy main strip of town, do I assume that they are homeless? Do I assume that they have no job and no ambition? I realize now, writing this, that sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. It depends on what they're wearing when I see them walking. If they're in a work uniform, I think, "Oh, he doesn't have a car and he still needs to work, so he's walking. Way to go!" But if they're wearing something that's a little more run-down and worn-out, I sometimes do think that they are homeless/jobless.
It's funny though...I went running this morning for the first time since the accident, and while I was doing that, nobody looked at me like I was strange or weird. I was wearing a sports bra, running shoes, and running clothes. That, apparently, is a perfectly normal thing to do thus, nobody makes any assumptions about my income, financial status, whether or not I have a home and pay my bills or whether or not I have a car. But when I *gasp* walked out along the main road in exactly the same outfit looking for quarters, the perspective changed...drastically!
So I walked towards town, hoping to find some place that would give me a roll of quarters. Most of the places I passed I suspected wouldn't carry quarters (i.e. hotels, car dealerships, pool/spa sales, insurance agencies) so I didn't stop to ask them for any and instead kept walking. I tried Jiffy Lube, and they would have given me some, but they didn't have any. And even though they were checking me out, they still were treating me differently because I was walking, not driving a car. Two more places, a shell gas station and a Napa auto parts store and the treatment got worse and worse. They were treating me like I was a beggar, a homeless bum with no house and no car. In fact, they were acting like I was just asking them to "give" me a roll of quarters, not "trade" for the $10 bill I was carrying.
Still I trudged on, feeling like I wanted to cry for being treated in such a way...but I still really did need quarters. Finally, I found a local pizza place that was willing to give me quarters, and he was friendly about it, but even he waited until I actually pulled the ten out of the clutch before he would put the roll of quarters anywhere near me.
Then, walking home, it hit me. Is this the way I treat people that I see walking? When I see somebody walking near a busy main strip of town, do I assume that they are homeless? Do I assume that they have no job and no ambition? I realize now, writing this, that sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. It depends on what they're wearing when I see them walking. If they're in a work uniform, I think, "Oh, he doesn't have a car and he still needs to work, so he's walking. Way to go!" But if they're wearing something that's a little more run-down and worn-out, I sometimes do think that they are homeless/jobless.
It's funny though...I went running this morning for the first time since the accident, and while I was doing that, nobody looked at me like I was strange or weird. I was wearing a sports bra, running shoes, and running clothes. That, apparently, is a perfectly normal thing to do thus, nobody makes any assumptions about my income, financial status, whether or not I have a home and pay my bills or whether or not I have a car. But when I *gasp* walked out along the main road in exactly the same outfit looking for quarters, the perspective changed...drastically!
posted by AeroAangel at 10:15
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