Random Acts of Storytelling

in line with last week’s bus stop recap, i had quite the interesting dialogue with a self admitted “homophobic, racist formerly homeless ex-convict of jewish ancestry” over coffee and chai at the local global capitalist café.

this was a bit more of a question and answer session as the gentleman was responding to some of my uninvited sarcasm. among the topics we discussed was his view of asian men, the japanese in particular; thought on religion and subservience; the hypocrisy of discussing socialism while consuming starbucks goods; mentorship and its value in a market driven economy; empathy, or the lack thereof, towards this country’s homeless and incarcerated; the glorification of the exploits of our current service men and the difference between living in an honest and/or truthful country. the last subject set the tone for most of our talk as we kept getting back to the fact that many of these concepts are simply abstracts. yeah, i know, anything can be an abstract and what really counts in the story is the concrete so here is the most concrete thing that went down.

a lil of both, i dont know but i know i didnt do any wrong. before you asked me if i did wrong and i said ‘no’
yeah, well, i was just being kind. what i really wanted to ask you was this: did you willfully break the law? were you in prison because of your own actions or through negative circumstances?
well, yeah… why were you being kind?
its your story and you’re sharing it. it feels rude to just come out and ask ya that.
thanks.
no worries.
yeah, uhhm, i’ll say that it was a little of both. i know what i did was wrong but i was still forced. does that make sense?
of course, its your story.

a lil more happened before and after but a lot of it is a blur at this point. i think i may have been able to talk to the man for quite a few hours but my coffee was done and i had to meet my wife and thats how i roll when it comes to my priorities. ‘sides, i’m a story teller and its only a matter of time before the next person comes up and shares their truth.