You Don’t Know Me

 


   Have you ever come across something that made you pause and just stare and then wonder?  It was so comical that you giggled…a lot.  And then, in the aftermath you realized that the reality wasn’t really that funny and really a bit sad?

      I took my kids to the library last night for more movies and books.   While waiting for the library clerk to check out our selections I noticed her glancing uneasily over towards the adult public computer stations and rolling her eyes.  Curious, I followed her gaze.  Here sat this heavy set man at one of the computers fast asleep.  His mouth was hanging open catching imaginary flies with a trail of drool hanging down to his chest.  All of a sudden he jerked, and his body reeled towards the computer monitor coming inches from smacking his noggin and braining himself.  Before his head crashed, he let out an earth shattering snore that shook the otherwise quiet library before jerking the other way and coming inches from hitting the floor literally suspended in mid- air.   He snorted…LOUD and just hung there.  I elbowed my oldest and we exchanged glances.  “My money says he falls flat…soon!”  She looked at me, I looked at her, and then we looked at my son.  The giggles started bubbling under the surface and then erupted like a volcano.  I could barely contain myself as we made a beeline for our car.   Once safely inside my car,   I laughed so hard that I cried.     My laughter was infectious, and we all laughed.    Seeing a grown man sleeping in public jerking about in such a way was so unexpected and well, funny!

        Pulling onto the highway I marveled that if a person was that flipping tired, why go to the library in the first place?  Why not stay home and go to bed?  I certainly wouldn’t rush out in public where I was sure to make a complete ass of myself!!  Then I was struck by another thought…maybe he is homeless!  It is cold outside.  If I had nowhere to go, I would head to a public place where I could stay warm at least until they closed and I had to move on.  It was when I pulled into my driveway and let myself into my warm home that I began to feel sorry for him and even felt grateful that I didn’t share his fate.  How awful it would be to be homeless, cold, and maybe even hungry.  Of course, maybe he was just tired.  Maybe he had a long day and had an urgent need to use the computer at the library.  I mentioned to my kids that maybe the library was the only place he had to go to get warm and feel safe enough to sleep. Maybe, just maybe he had nowhere else to go.

    The giggles that so completely engulfed us before became a memory as we all contemplated that little tidbit.  I am sure; if I were him the last thing I would want is someone’s pity no matter how much help I needed to survive.   Of course, if I was that desperate to find a warm, safe place, I probably wouldn’t care at that point what the hell other people thought.  I would simply feel blessed to have somewhere to be where I could be warm and safe if only for a little while.  Whatever his situation and place in life, I am sure he is doing the very best he can and I wish him well.   You can never truly understand another person’s motives unless you have walked in their shoes.

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People at Christmas Haiku

I am taking part in The Write Tribe Festival of Words 8th – 14th December 2013.

people united

celebrate the holy birth

rejoicing world wide

Don’t Judge Me

Welcome to the 4th week of BlogFest 2012.  Today’s writing prompt is brought to us from Paula at Paula Martin-Romance Writer.  Thank you Paula for the great prompt!!

     I don’t think I have ever judged a book by its cover.   I have always read the brief summery inside the book jacket or on the back cover to decide if I would find the book worth reading.  If the book happens to have the added bonus of being penned by an already favorite author, I don’t care what the cover looks like.  I am going to read that book.  Even when selecting books for my kids I delve a little deeper into the story book than the cover.  I flip through the pages and look at the illustrations to see if they are engaging.  

       Ever since an encounter in my early twenties I treat people the same way.  I never judge them by their outward appearances anymore.  I wait to see what kind of person they are first.  When I was 24 my mother went three times a week to dialysis.  She would spend 4 hours on the machine at a time surrounded by the same group of people.  After a while, it was hard not to get to know people after seeing them so much.  I remember this one man who was brought in from a nursing home.  He was half blind and both his legs had been amputated.  To look at him, you would have thought he had always been that way and never had much of a life.  You couldn’t help but feel sorry for him; he was such a sad lonely figure.

       I made a habit of saying hello to all the patients and decided one day to go over and say hello to him and see how he was doing.  He told me that because he failed to keep his diabetes under control he had to have his legs amputated and had all but lost his sight.  His kidneys were shot which is what brought him to dialysis.  Before he got sick he led a very interesting life.  He drew maps for a living and had the pleasure of drawing the official maps for the Calgary Olympic Winter games of 1988.  He had went to the games and been an integral part of them at the time.  Who would have thought the man who looked half dead most of the time could turn into such a fascinating person?  From that day on, he came to life when I walked into the dialysis center and I always made a point to visit with him when I made my rounds.  We became fast friends.  He went from sleeping most of the time he was there looking lost and alone to talking animatedly about his past adventures and laughing right out loud.

       The best things in life aren’t always in plain view.   It really doesn’t matter what people or books look like.  You must approach every one and thing with an open mind and explore the possibilities within before you can have any hope of making a fair judgment.  What matters is what lies hidden within until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.