Confrontations With Strangers

The lubricating agent for social intercourse is civility.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ addressed the need for civility by telling the multitudes to put aside, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.  If your cheek is injured, turn the other cheek"

Like so many things Jesus tells us to do, that one is hard. Just ask the guy currently occupying the White House. Or ask me.

Those of us who passed the finish line a long time ago spend an inordinate amount of time digging out little snapshots of incidents from the past; some for giggles, some for a deserved cringe.  Like what I call my probably 20-years-ago Dick Tracy episode.

I needed a refill of meds I was completely out of and so would have to wait for the pill guy to do his business.  No problem; I'll take my front section of the NY Times and go to Freddie's Starbucks and wait for the refill to be ready.  After dropping off the empty pill bottle at the pharmacy, I remembered we were out of the mints we always kept in the glove compartment so I rolled up the newspaper, stuck it in my back pocket and got in the checkout line to buy the mints.  As I cleared the checkout I heard the guy behind me say to the checkout girl, "He's stealing a paper." What?  This guy's talking about me? When I turned around the guy is embarrassed that I heard him and he won't look me in the eye. "Hey, Dick Tracy," I say to him while pulling the paper from my back pocket, "this is a paper I subscribe to and bring along to read while waiting for a prescription to be filled."

It's one of those "Gotch'ya" moments.  The poor guy looks around for some place in the store that doesn't include me, probably wishing he was in Anchorage, Alaska or any place but Milwaukie, Oregon. The checkout girl is confused, embarrassed and wondering how I knew the guy's name was Dick Tracy. It's plain that it's time to strike the set of this little social melodrama, so I leave.  Jesus frowns.

Looking back now I see my angry reaction to being called a thief (Newspaper headline: "Heist of New York Times in Fred Meyers Foiled By Alert Citizen") triggered an over-reaction.  Forget the Dick Tracy business: just turn around and say, "This is a paper I subscribe to" and leave.  I wish I had done that.