Looking Around

So few entries, so much time... or something like that.

I admit, I have not done much of this lately. I have gotten so out of the habit, I have to wonder. Then, I look around my life- I see a pattern here. I like to start things. I don't care about finishing or continuing things. My spouse, Lynn, on the other hand, has this finishing gene all down pat. It gets in her way starting sometimes, because she knows that she HAS to finish what she starts... sometimes, that very day. I have no such compulsion. Thus, when she sits down in the morning to begin a writing project, for example, she is as likely to still be at it 20 hours later as not. I on the other hand, will get up go get some coffee, take a walk, fall into a book, something. Or, even before I get started... I find YouTube or iTunes, or someplace far more interesting (or is that distracting). Long and short of it... I don't do this (or any other project).

And, then, I get to here- not really wanting to write about deep personal stuff yet running slap out of trite surface stuff.

Oh yeah, I have a question here- why did the woman decide it was ok to confront me about the bumperstickers on my wife's van the other day? I was at the MARTA station waiting for a friend to show up and give a ride to, when this floozy looking, scantily clad Paris Hilton wannabe clone stuck her face in the window and told me how disgusted she was by my bumperstickers and how I should be ashamed. The rush of anger off her that washed over me was overpowering. Look folks, Pro-Peace, Anti-President, Stop War bumperstickers are not all that un-American... in fact, they are more American than blindly following some idiot down the primrose path.

Just for a bit more background, I had noticed the woman in her Mercedes drive the wrong way up a bus only drive, park in a bus only lane, then get yelled at by two or three bus drivers, before she parked behind me in the Kiss & Ride lane. As I think back on this incident, I am more sure now that her recent experience with being in the wrong place encouraged her to yell at someone else and ground her anger. She was not rational and could not hear my side of any of it. I have had a relatives in the conflict zone, I have not been in favor of armed conflict, and I am not satisfied with the non-investigation of 9/11. She did that talk radio non-argument thing of, "so it's Bush, Bush, Bush..." then stomped off. She never got to hear how it has been a long slow decline into wasted war efforts in the Mid-East since before Jimmy Carter.

She was not interested in a political dialogue (like the ones I have with the relatives who fully support the war and went into Afghanistan). We agree to disagree and get on with life and cancelling out each others votes most of the time. This woman was more interested in just flat out yelling at someone over something. Maybe she was having a fight with the old geezer in her car (or his car, maybe). I suspect that she took my bumper stickers as signs of someone she could abuse and not be in danger with... a good choice on her part. I would not respond with violence- argument, maybe... discussion, always... not violence.

What the incident also points up is the deepening divide in this nation over the war, and the ease with which some folks resort to violence- verbal or physical. This might be something we want to start getting over if we are to truly solve the issues of conflict facing us. And, this has gone on about long enough with no end in sight (the war and this entry). So, let me close down now by noting that this strange woman yelled about something she had no control over after she had been chastised about a wrong decision she made, and really got me to thinking about what makes me go off. And, usually, it doesn't happen around bumperstickers. And, it usually doesn't happen with people I am in relationship with... only distant strangers when I feel "safe". I think I see something in myself here that I want to work on... learning that I have no strangers in my life, only friends I haven't met, yet.