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A dip in the INKWELL June 09, 2005 I picked up my new eyeglasses today. Rimless wire-frames (every time I say that it seems like an oxymoron to me) with magnetic, clip-on, polarized sunglass attachments. Very swank, and they ought to be for $518. Gulp. I think it was worth it. So far I am really enjoying them. My peripheral vision is better with no rims to get in the way, and all the fancy non-glare and non-scratch coating was worth the extra bucks. They’re also light as a feather. Maybe the missus will think I look sexy in them. On the way back from the “eyecare specialists” I had some Fred Durst-wannabe bike messenger flip me the bird as I was crossing the street. I guess he figured the crosswalk was not big enough for both me and his scrawny, pierced, tattooed, $9.50-an-hour-but-the-chicks-dig-bike-messengers-so-they-buy-me-beers ass. Then I saw a guy slap another guy at the scene of a car accident. This stuff always pisses me off until I remember, “Oh yeah, you’re a bike messenger, and you’re a stupid guy in a wife-beater, track shorts, $200 sneakers and a ridiculous silver cross around your neck.” (Think he’s ever heard the expression “turn the other cheek?”) I wouldn’t want to trade lives with either of them, nor are either of them the kind of people I could have any respect for. (No offense to bike messengers. I did a stint as a messenger in my Copy Cop days, and I know it can be a shitty job, but I didn’t go flippin’ the bird to strangers in the street.) It does get more and more difficult to live in the city, though. The closer people are together, the more opportunity one has to witness their stupidity. What makes it worse is that it is a stupidity born of selfishness. So many people do stupid things that they think are in their best interests but are actually self-destructive. Take the moron who slapped the guy at the traffic stop. He is probably going to spend at least part of the afternoon in custody because he blew his cool. From what I could understand of the situation, he was the victim in the accident. He had the police on his side, and things were probably going to go his way. Then he has to prove his manhood and square off with this other guy who was about 60 years old and skinny as a rail. What did he prove? That he’s an idiot who watches too many action movies and too much MTV. The older guy (the “slapee”) just shrugged it off. (He was an older Asian man, and stayed very composed, with his hands behind his back, the entire time.) The police officer asked him if he wanted to press assault charges and he said, “No, it was just a slap in the face.” Now, testosterone boy probably thought he got the best of that exchange, and I would not doubt that many of the bystanders, who probably live by some strange code of “proper respect” and macho bravado as well, would have agreed. Maybe this helps explain why such a significant proportion of this country’s population ends up in jail. Meanwhile, I worry about all the people who think I’m a geek or a wimp. I don’t know why it should bother me. I’m 39 and free to just keep walking down the street. |