WHERE DID HUMANITY GO?

Memoir from a puzzled mind...

On a certain cold and bleak winter morning, my sights were set on sail to Alberta's Number 1 Hall of Fame, that popular school where many proud hearted 'overgrown babies' carry their faces like expired shit that refused to be flushed down the toilet. As feeble as I was that morning, I was all strapped up and ready to leave, looking like nothing short of a sorry excuse for an Eskimo. No thanks to the freezing weather which had a way of forcing me to look uber goofy like the rest of the population at that particular time of the year. I took a bus down to the train station and got on the next available train going to my destination.

I got into the train and began to walk down the aisle slowly, looking for an open seat very close to the window so I could easily doze off. I saw a young, dark-skinned lady in one particular compartment which had an open seat by the window. She had just taken her seat when I decided to take the opposite seat. In a matter of moments we were both seated facing each other, waiting for the train to depart. She looked a tad bit uncomfortable, like there was an insect biting her buttocks. So she kept shifting carefully from side to side and adjusting her back pack that was also seated beside her with her hands unceremoniously placed over it.

From the corner of my eyes, I watched her open and close her bag a number of times, searching for this or that, bringing them out and sliding them back in. It was as if she was trying every effort to make sure she didn't lose something when her composure looked like she actually misplaced something. I do that too, sometimes when I'm not sure I have this or that or even my ID with me, I usually fret a bit until I find it and stow it away safely.

There was a white, blonde middle aged woman seated behind her, backing her in the next train compartment. This young lady hadn't the slightest idea that in those moments of shifting and minor fidgeting, her elbows brushed the woman's shoulder across a couple of times. Clearly a case of an unconscious state of action, I didn't expect her to know because her winter jacket was so thick and fluffy that I, for one, wouldn't have known it if I brushed someone. I wouldn't feel the effect. In this case, she didn't feel it so she didn't know.

"Get your hands off my shoulders!" the woman shouted aggressively at the girl in a very loud high pitched voice, a voice loud enough to make a bird freeze during flight and draw upon the attention of the entire passengers in the train cabin. She turned back abruptly and faced forward with a heavy frown, mechanically fixing her earpiece back in her ears in a classic bad ass style likened to a hit man acting undercover. Those words electrified my senses to the marrow. Few seconds of shock registered on my face and the faces of nearby passengers but the one who had the greatest 3D bone cracking effect was the young girl.

My eyebrows pointed toward the sky as I watched her closely after the woman faced forward. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought that the woman had had a previous grudge with the girl. This girl was so innocently embarrassed she could hardly speak. She didn't even utter a word, not even as much as a 'Sorry'. Her medulla must have been placed on a brief paralysis for she stared a little longer at the woman, apparently not knowing what to say. Then she sighed deeply and turned away to meet my eyes. I gave a sincerely weak smile. One that said something like, "Don't worry about her. She's not worth your salt."

She did not smile back. Instead, she rolled her eyes to the roof of the train and turned away to face the outside through the window, obviously nonplussed and outraged. She blinked her eyes forlonly and gave a very deep sigh, then a small hiss. I caught that hiss very well. It reminded me of those frustrated Yoruba women at Balogun market in Lagos Island who made a meager profit at the end of the day. After puckering her lips in a comical, old fashioned manner, she pushed herself forward a little bit, leaned her back and placed her head by the window, then closed her eyes. I did not know if the rough stunt was still affecting her senses or if she had decided to let it off her mind. I could never tell.

Introspecting silently, the only question I could ask myself was, "If this young girl was also white, how differently or not differently would this woman have reacted, or was it that it was in her nature to be unnecessarily cold?" I did not have an answer. I would never know. However, one thing was certainly crystal clear. Based on the nature of the woman's reaction which was totally unpolite and uncalled for, the girl didn't think an apology was a necessary sine qua non for validation and that was final for her. This was a quintessential example of what the phrase 'Tit for Tat' meant.
***

MORAL: Never transfer your aggression for an unjust cause because the unlucky victim of your aggression is not the cause of your issues. Do you realize how much of a bad impression you inflict upon yourself by doing that?

Do you think you are the only one with issues in this world? Please go back to your mat and continue sleeping!

The world needs humanity and we all need love. To treat with love is to be humane. To be humane is bliss. Find it. Learn it. Develop it.