Tonight, after shopping for school supplies, I was midway into hopping into a cab when a hispanic man started calling out to me. "Oye, preciosa," he whispered. Ew, I thought. As I got into the cab, he persisted. "Beautiful lady!" My blinders were on. "Look. Leave me alone," I replied, "I have to run." "You don't remember me?" He actually reached out to touch me. OK. Enough. I looked up above the cab seat in front of me and the shopping bags.
It was my son's barber. A.K.A., Mike Tyson's barber.
I felt awful. I was actively running away from this man, with whom I worked so hard to establish a stable business relationship and friendship. He had met my grandmother when she was in town, too.
"Look, I am so, so sorry. I just had no idea. You see, sometimes random people say the same things....I am so embarassed to have reacted that way."
No problem, Maitresse.
"Are you sure?" From the cab, I grabbed his hand and asked him to really forgive me.
I jumped the gun. I pre-judged. I feel terrible. Need to book that haircut immediately.
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1 comment:
Thanks for your understanding and empathy; I guess my residual big picture question in all this is...what happens to us when that sort of behavior (of the kind I exhibited at that time) becomes our default behavior? hmmm...
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