alternative hippopotamus

progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital

February 22, 2007

One of those awkward moments

by AltHippo @ 6:21 pm. Filed under Life in D.C.

Today I had cabin fever. Washington, DC, while being a quirky city in many ways, definitely has mild winters going for it. This winter hasn’t been mild, per se, but more a study in extremes: the first couple of weeks in January were basically tropical, and then the last few weeks have been arctic. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if next week’s forecast called for frogs and locusts.

Seeing how it was supposed to be warm today, and except for a short thunderstorm, and heavy winds in the late afternoon, it was nice, I took some time off of work. I used the time during the thunderstorm to re-inflate the tires on my bike, and adjust the seat, so that right afterwards I was ready to embark for parts unknown.

I stopped for a late lunch at Guapo’s, one of DC’s better Mexican restaurants in a city not at all known for Mexican restaurants. But that’s a story for another day.

The point is that this is when I was accosted by a woman with a clipboard and $ signs in her eyes.

She said: “Are you an environmental supporter?”
I said: “Yes, I support it emotionally, but not in any financial sense.”
She said: “I’m from Greenpeace. What’s your biggest environmental issue? Global warming? That’s a big one.”

I really wanted to nip this conversation in the bud. I listened politely as I locked up my bike in front of Guapo’s. She said some more things about Greenpeace as I tried to extract myself from the conversation. I came up with what I thought was a good line.

I said: “I’m more of a Sierra Club type.”
She said: “But, I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but Greenpeace is international, which makes it more effective on issues like global warming than Sierra Club.”

That caught me off balance. You rarely hear one environmental group dissing another. I was intrigued. And, yes, there is an argument to be made that Greenpeace, as an international organization, has certain advantages. Advantages outweighed, I would argue by the Sierra Club’s use of local events like hikes, bike rides, clean-up days, etc., that make it part of the community. But, she had a point.

The problem was: I didn’t want to have an involved discussion about Sierra Club vs. Greenpeace. Or a discussion about Global Warming. Or a discussion about anything. This was one of those times when I wanted to be left alone. I call it “me time.” When I’m on “me time” I’m under no obligation to do anything. Because, if I were it wouldn’t be “me time” anymore, it would be “us time.” Or, even “you time.” I took the day off to do “you time”? I think not. Not if it means giving someone money.

So, I had to cut this short.
I said, not unkindly, but firmly: “Now, I’m going to go have my lunch.”
She said, crestfallen: “Alright.”

I had finished locking up my bike, and putting some things away, and looked up. This was the first time I noticed that she was on crutches. This poor woman on crutches had devoted her afternoon to talking about the environment to me, a stranger, and I’d just brushed her off. What do you do in that situation?

In this case I made a bee line for the bar at Guapo’s, and had myself a good lunch. And when I came out, and she was still there, hunched over next to my bike, I walked all the way around the block, through the Whole Foods, and up a side street, that’s how guilty I felt.

Bookmark on del.icio.us

2 Responses to “One of those awkward moments”

  1. Ben Says:
    February 25th, 2007 at 9:23 pm

    I recall being somewhere around 14, out on my bike and headed for a friend’s house. I stopped at a local supermarket to grab a soda or whatever, and waiting outside were two elder nuns collecting money for some sort of homeless project. Ignoring them so as not to turn them down, and remembering that I had only two bills in my pocket, a twenty and a five, I resolved to go inside, pay for my soda, break the five, and drop a dollar in the nun’s till. All through the store I was thinking about the nun’s service before self, and balancing that with the thought that twenty five bucks was all I had–took me a while to earn it by mowing lawns in the hot Florida sun–but I figured it would be the right thing to do, give back a little. Once outside the store, hand went in pocket, pushed bill into the can while enjoying the gratitude of the little old lady in white, and I was on my way.
    One or two miles down the road, it occurred that I may have grabbed from the wrong pocket, and I had. The twenty, in all it’s capital glory, had been resting sweetly in my left pocket, where the fiver (and now change) was in my right. I stopped and checked, and sure enough, I’d given her the twenty. I was SO pissed off about my error that during the ride back to the store, cursing the nuns, their work, the homeless, and myself, I had not thought about what it would be like to get the twenty back. How stupid would I have looked, facing down the little nuns, “Ma’am, I put a twenty in there and I only meant to give you one–can you give me the twenty back?” Unfortunately, I didn’t have this realization until I’d ridden all the way back. I turned around in the parking lot and headed for my friend’s house, less twenty bucks, but finally feeling that the money would not go to trivial things.
    My story is a little off topic, but your post made me recall that day. In your case, it seems to me that you’re a concerned citizen. My assumption, without knowing you one bit, is to think you try to fix the world in your way. We can’t be 100% all the time. And I’m right there with you on the “me” time idea. If I’m in that space, I give the Greenpeace lady on crutches a shove, walk into the restaurant, and have a good bite to eat. Don’t worry about it–just think about how all those US Senators are driven to work on the American dime–and most of them don’t do anything but take from the system.
    And later that day? My frickin bike was stolen. Karma, huh?

  2. AltHippo Says:
    February 26th, 2007 at 10:00 am

    Thanks for the story, and that wasn’t off topic at all.

Leave a Reply

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-Spam Image

« Department of Things to Check Out
Country Retreat »

[powered by WordPress.]

hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.

contact

TBA 2008

The Alternative Hypothesis

the elephants of anwr

issues and insight

capitolists

alt media

sounds

critical resources

flora and fauna

law & order

events

cinema

literati

propaganda

use with extreme caution

internal links:

categories:

search blog:

archives:

February 2007
M T W T F S S
« Jan   Mar »
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728  

other:

95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

comments

Recent Comments

HippoWire

  • Recent Trackbacks:

    • 27 queries. 1.646 seconds