The first one was on Wednesday when I forgot my child at school. That's right. I forgot her. She actually had to call me and ask me where I was. In my defense, I was sleep deprived and had my mind on women's land rights in Ghana due to a doctoral thesis that I was editing, but still, I forgot her.
Worse yet, when she called I was actually surprised to hear from her. Like, "what do you mean where am I? I'm sitting at Julie's school waiting to pick her up and then we're coming to get you."
"What?!? Mom, I got out of school 45 minutes ago!!"
Shit, it's early release day.
The second happening actually involves a blind man - which is a little ironic since my friend Jess actually said something to me about making fun of people that wear sunglasses when it's not sunny out. Her comment was "what if they're blind?" Anyway.
This man has dressed up as Uncle Sam for the last 5 years and stood outside Liberty Tax Center, which happens to be owned by a couple of Middle Eastern men that dress in cheap suits and circa-late-80's leather jackets.Of course, I find all sorts of things wrong with this picture, but I won't get into them except to say that, yes, I do find irony in the fact that two men of Middle Eastern descent own an American tax refund center that is called "Liberty Tax Center." Enough said.
So for the last 5 years, I've seen this man outside their place, pacing the sidewalk and waving to people. My dogs bark and growl at him every time we drive by and I happen to trust their judgment. And I haven't really made fun of him as much as I've said things like, "poor bastard," and "what kind of criminal record must you have if this is the only job you can get?"
Turns out he's blind.
And now I feel like a HUGE asshole.
Like, just to make it up to him I want to buy him a cup of coffee and an egg sandwich or something. And I'm not sure if I should be grateful to the men who own the tax place for giving him a job (although it's humiliating and probably doesn't pay well) or if I should be angry at them for exploiting a blind man to do work that no one else wants to do.
So, maybe someone in the universe is trying to teach me a lesson about being a better person - I don't know. What I do know is that, overall, I really thought I was a pretty good person to begin with. I have a lot of friends and I make people laugh a lot.
Like, sure, there are a few people on planet that hate me in a major way and it weighs heavily on me, but there isn't anything I can do to change that now, so rather than dwell on it, I've had to learn to let it go and hope that someday they can too. But to think that the big man upstairs is screaming, "hey asshole!! Hello?!? Are you listening Stacie? It's me, God. And I think you're being an asshole!!! You forgot your kid at school, you've made fun of a blind man, what's next?? An attack on the Little People of America?"
Well, that kind of shit makes you sit up and take notes.
1 comment:
Forgetting an early release day is an easy thing to do. Once, when I drove a school bus, I was between runs and completely forgot my son had half a day (different school district then where I worked). He was there for a few hours before I found out.
Making fun of the blind guy, well, you didn't know he was blind. If you had and said something like, "Ha ha. Look at the blind guy that's the only job he can do and he's waving when no one is going by!" Well, that would make you an asshole.
Don't feel bad about it. Hell, people still make fun of me for dressing like Hannah Montana. I don't think any less of them.
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