A woman stands at the edge of a cross walk waiting for the correct time to cross the street. She watches some of the crowd as they cross at a moment of their choosing, dodging traffic with a blatant disregard for their safety and the safety of others.
As she waits with the remaining crowd a speeding car races by and throws up a torrent of muddy water that covers the woman head to toe.
The reaction of the people surrounding her is varied. There are some who are busy with their own crossing and never see the woman. There are some who want to help, who believe they should help yet are trapped within the flow of the moving crowd.
There are those who stop and offer her any assistance they have and the woman is grateful but because of circumstances beyond their control the help does nothing but sooth the woman, the dirt remains.
Then there are those who are carrying with them the tools needed to help the woman, tools that either could have prevented the car from throwing up the mud or tools to remove all traces of dirt. They offer her no assistance because helping her would be of no benefit to them. She can only offer her gratitude and gratitude has no value to these people.
Not every crosswalk holds such misery for the woman. There are times when the cross over is clean and painless but for many, many blocks each cross has been the same; dirt thrown up in her face for one simple reason, following the beat of her own drummer.
Each time the dirt is thrown the woman takes responsibility, "The dirt was thrown at me because I stood on the edge."
But could that be true?
Other people stand on the edge and yet they don't have dirt thrown at them and those people who cross whenever they want why doesn't anything happen to them?
The woman tries to understand why this is happening.
Should she take a different route?
Should she change where she stands in the crowd?
Should she hide behind the other people who chose to wait on the edge?
Should she not cross and stay where she is circling the same block over and over again?
She wishes that just once a person who possesses the power to protect her would do so, just once.
8 comments:
Anyone who stands on the edge, following the beat of a different drum, needs to do so with the understanding of the implications of their choice. There are many in this world who do reach out, many more who do not. There are many, like myself, who have followed a different drum and who have paid the price. Sometimes I regret the price, sometimes I don't. Those who have reached out to me have tried to get me to take a different path, one not so likely to "produce dirt". It was not their job to let me make whatever choice I wanted and then take away any consequences.There are also times help has been offered and I have refused it out of pride.
I guess I don't have any real answers. Your post was certainly evocative of feelings for me. Thank you
E
Perhaps we don't always recognize the protection. Suppose that fast car had come along 30 seconds later. The woman standing on the edge would have been the first into the street, into the path of the car. Sometimes we get reminders that living on the edge doesn't mean we don't look both ways before we step out, or even while still standing on the curb.
I just ran across the stripper pole bit.
Did Josh Duhamel buy one for you as well?
Are there no chivalrous gentlemen in your part of the world? Tsk!
Just keep on being you and don't step back :o)
I think the woman needs to ask herself which is more important--being on the edge, or getting a little dirty?
And just because others stand on the edge and don't get dirty doesn't mean their lives are any easier. It's hard to tell what is going on in the entirety of a person's life while they're standing on a curb with you.
Personally, I think the woman is strong enough, and resiliant enough to stand a little dirt.
But it's not for me to decide.
Whatever the woman decides will be fine.
yeharr
Hi DL,
I think that the woman needs to go inside the closest pub and get a Sidecar.
XOXO
Chuck
Hi DL,
I forgot-- I'd be buying! ;-)
Chuck
Thought provoking.
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