— पांच हजार अस्सी-तीन —
Yesterday directly after work, Tracy picked me up in the garage of our office building and then drove us to Pacific Place, where we went to the AMC to see the 5 pm showing pf
Belfast, which we both quite liked, and enjoyed even more than we quite expected. I didn't think it was perfect, but it was still very good. You can just read the review for further detail if you're so inclined.
That's basically it. We went to the movie. She drove me home. I spent about an hour writing the review as always. Maybe more, as I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for a photo online that I liked best to embed in the review post.
Well, not quite it, I suppose. As soon as I got out of Tracy's car, after we spent a few minutes mapping out the several other movies she wants to see with me over the next few weeks, scheduled around our separate trips to Palm Springs (mine next week and hers the week after; just another coincidence), I could not find my face mask. I knew I had worn it through Pacific Place on our way to the car and had not taken it off until we got into the car, so I assumed I must have left it in there. This was a matter of seconds so I called her and asked if she could come back. She said "Yeah" without hesitation and even hung up before I could explain why.
A few minutes later, she rounded the corner and pulled up again. I still could not find the mask anywhere. Not on the chair, not on the floor, not under the chair, not behind the char. What the fuck? This was especially annoying because it's the same mask I have been wearing literally since I finally got my first three-pack from Amazon in April of last year. Or maybe it was May. I think it was May. Anyway, I recently tried to find the other two from that same three-pack and I can't find it. I can only find the other three-pack I had actually ordered first but took forever to arrive, but those masks are not as good or as comfortable. I wanted this mask back!
But, I couldn't find it. I shut the door and resigned myself to going inside without it. And then? I saw my mask on the ground, on the street right next to the curb.
— पांच हजार अस्सी-तीन —
— पांच हजार अस्सी-तीन —
I forgot to mention something else in yesterday's DLU, a brief interaction I had after getting off the bus downtown on my way to work in the morning. A young man with a face mask over his beard caught my attention, saying "Excuse me?" or something to that effect. I was walking and reading my library book, westward on the sidewalk on Pine between Third and Second, but I stopped and looked up. I half expected him to ask for directions somewhere, based on the way he started the conversation.
Then he said, "First of all, thank you for acknowledging me." I felt a pang of empathy for him, which only made me feel kind of bad after he then immediately said, "I'm not asking for money, I'm just trying to find someone who can buy me some food?"
I said, "Sorry," and kept walking. But, I did walk away feeling bad, and kind of wondering to what level of a hypocrite this made me. I had a few dollars in my wallet. I have a tendency, particularly within the last year or two, to speak up about the need to avoid the trap of dehumanizing homeless people. I certainly didn't have time to stop and take him somewhere to buy him food. His tactic probably just gets him money anyway. How honest was he even being? I truly have no idea. I also didn't have time to procure his life story. How callous does it make me to be running through these thoughts? I know full well what kind of position of privilege from which they spring.
Homelessness is a huge issue these days, in Seattle and in many other cities. Police sweeps of city park encampments are ineffective and inhumane. Although: ineffective at what, exactly? They have been effective at making me feel comfortable in parks I love again. But, where do they go? The dismissive idea that homeless people don't deserve any sympathy because they refuse to use shelter services is preposterous; there are myriad reasons—deeply valid ones—why they either don't or they literally can't. People act like there's some easy process for homeless people to get out of their circumstances, and there just isn't. To be fair, there is no easy city or state or federal policy position either, but I do feel that is where the responsibility lies, and a good start would be to reinstate the mental health services cut from government programming by Reagan in the eighties. And that's just one line in a complex web of reasons why so many people live on the streets.
But, in that one moment, I rejected one of them, as I typically do, and walked on. My end of it was hardly unusual. The reason why it stuck with me was because of the guy saying, "Thank you for acknowledging me." And that he said that right before I had to brush him off like I always do. My acknowledgment hardly meant anything in the end.
— पांच हजार अस्सी-तीन —
[posted 12:25 pm]
