Happy early Valentine's Day, human race
Every once in a while, I catch myself saying, rather surprisingly, the following words: "I love people." It happened today as I was leaving my African Cinema class (which was let out an hour early--score), walking through campus to my car, and ran into a kid who was a.) no more than twelve years old, and b.) I swear to God, could've been my little half-Japanese cousin. He approached me trying to sell coupons to Domino's Pizza, which in itself was more than a little sad, and then revealed to me that they were for his school Science Camp. I could've figured this out by the voice coming out of his mouth that made Napoleon Dynamite sound like Frank Sinatra. I waited until he was done speaking, politely told him "No, thank you," and upon hearing his small, 12 year-old, "Okay," followed by a faint grunt as he turned to march into the other direction, I spun around, waved to him, and sent him off with a paltry, "Good luck!"
Moments later, I headed down a walkway towards the parking garage in which my car was just waiting to get a ticket, and noticed a thirty-something year-old guy wearing this hiking backpack with bottled waters sticking out of the side pockets coming up towards me in the opposite direction. My immediate thought: "Damn, this is a narrow walkway...wonder if I should..." And before I could finish, the guy moved aside as he walked, to the extent to where he was damn near in the bushes over the handrail; it was close to embarrassing. And I nodded, kept on walking, and thought to myself, "I love people."
More than likely, it had something to do with the fact that these two went out of their way to be nice and cordial, complete strangers bending over backwards to make things okay, if just for a second. However, for a moment, something else really odd struck me: I felt superior to two people, this little door-to-door nerd and his uncomfortably middle-aged counterpart. I felt pity for more than a few moments, and to tell you the truth, in this town that's a rare feeling.
I continued to walk to my car, half-smiling, and wondered what a world populated by only science geeks and people too nervous to speak up would be like. Less hierarchical. Less pressure. It'd probably be something close to great.
Moments later, I headed down a walkway towards the parking garage in which my car was just waiting to get a ticket, and noticed a thirty-something year-old guy wearing this hiking backpack with bottled waters sticking out of the side pockets coming up towards me in the opposite direction. My immediate thought: "Damn, this is a narrow walkway...wonder if I should..." And before I could finish, the guy moved aside as he walked, to the extent to where he was damn near in the bushes over the handrail; it was close to embarrassing. And I nodded, kept on walking, and thought to myself, "I love people."
More than likely, it had something to do with the fact that these two went out of their way to be nice and cordial, complete strangers bending over backwards to make things okay, if just for a second. However, for a moment, something else really odd struck me: I felt superior to two people, this little door-to-door nerd and his uncomfortably middle-aged counterpart. I felt pity for more than a few moments, and to tell you the truth, in this town that's a rare feeling.
I continued to walk to my car, half-smiling, and wondered what a world populated by only science geeks and people too nervous to speak up would be like. Less hierarchical. Less pressure. It'd probably be something close to great.