Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Glimpse of another life

Overheard today on the bus: "I'm not going there alone. I get scared when I am alone!" - coming from a grown man, in his fifties, chatting with his neighbors.

That caused my brain to go into "Something's not normal" mode. I took another look at him and at his two neighbors. I noticed similar jackets and similar hats. I then imagined that they might be special needs adults living in a group home. Pure, hasty speculation - but why else would a grown man say that he gets scared? Since my stop was coming up, there was no time for me to figure things out, so I don't know.

Had it been a child or a woman, I would not have noticed. But for a man, in our society that kind of language is taboo in public.

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