Faith In Humanity ||
‘And by subsitiuting X for Y we can get the value of…’
The teacher droned on and on about algebra and values in numbers, Rose looked out the window, paying no heed to the words that came out of his mouth. Why should she? She had learned this method when it was invented after all, so useless.
Violet eyes watched the dark clouds roll by, thunder sounding as the bell rang to signal home. However, the small girl didn’t move at all. She stayed there lost in her thoughts, memories of times before this.
“Pathetic.”
She slowly got up from the desk, grabbing her bag as she entered into the hallway, however, she was so lost in memories that her senses didn’t even pick up the human outside in which she ran into and hit. The two fell to the ground and she looked at the blonde with soulless eyes, usually there would be a hateful remark but she was so worn out from being up during the daylight hours that she simply said nothing.
I have to share this..
Today, the coolest old man came into my work today. So, FYI, I work at a kart track and we had just opened up so we were super slow. There was absolutely no one racing or reservations but then we had a walk-in, this old man. The girl that works the front desk came out and told us to be super nice, it was his birthday, and his first time here, plus he was all alone. So my manager let us all hop in and race with him so he wasn’t alone. After his first session we stopped and then while he was taking a break we took him on a track walk in which I found out why the front desk girl took the time to tell us to be nice. He opened up and told me his wife had just passed away, that they were supposed to have gone karting together for the first time here but she passed before they got the chance. On top of this the day before was their anniversary AND today was HIS birthday. He had called all of his friends up and offered to pay for all their karting but no one wanted to/showed up. Despite all this he was still so upbeat, I could tell inside he was torn apart, but I could see how strong this guy was. He told me, “Yeah, Patricia and I were supposed to try this, so I called in to work today and lied that I was sick, fuck it right?”
Then he mentioned he was a musician, which struck common ground between us and we ended up talking for 20 minutes until his next race about what he plays, his gigs he STILL does, and life stuff. Before he left he mentioned how he was considering going skydiving and that he wasn’t scared of dying anymore etc., he just wants to enjoy his life and do things. He gave me his card, we shook hands, and he said he would like to come out and race once a month, maybe find a girlfriend he joked that would race with him.
I really hope he keeps coming out to race, this guy made my day. He just gave off this aura, I could tell he was a good person going through a rough, rough, time. I mean, when we were talking about his wife, he was almost pouring out his guts telling me he felt guilty for giving her the pain meds before she passed, like he felt responsible in some way that he couldn’t get her through the cancer alive. This man is the most real person I have come across in so long. It really just gave me a new-found hope in humanity. It’s so hard to find good intention-ed people nowadays.
If I am anywhere near as down-to-earth and good-hearted as this guy one day I will be happy with that and nothing else. The world needs more good people, and today I just happen to come across one, and yeah, it made my day.
Doing Anything
Every day I watch as the visages of a thousand possible future dissolve before my very eyes. As I age, my life becomes an ever collapsing wavefunction. It’s like watching the stars in the sky go out one by one. In time I imagine I’ll be blinded by the utter darkness of a starless night. But not yet. The stars are still there. I have to work, while I still have the light.
I give to charities, and I need to donate more blood. Both are great, but I wanted to do something more palpable. After I heard that children were hurt during the Boston bombings, I decided to go out and do something a little different than just sending money. I wanted to do something, no matter how small and insignificant, more direct.
So I did this.
I went out and bought eight stuffed animals - one for each of the eight children being treated at Boston Children’s Hospital (I’m assuming they’re all still there. Hopefully some of them are well enough to go home to their families). I’m sure I looked goofy buying a bunch of stuffed animals:
Cashier at ToysRUs: Do you collect these?
Me: Nope. Oh my god, do I look like I do? I knew I should have shaved the neckbeard this morning.
At least I wasn’t buying a bunch of My Little Pony stuff. Doubt I could have explained my way out of that one.
When I got home, I unpackaged the stuffed animals, as they were tied to a cardboard stand, and wrote short, inspirational quotes on a piece of paper as messages tot he children because I have NO idea how to interact with children, especially sick or injured ones. I’m worse at talking to children than I am at talking to women. I also assumed that they’d be getting a bunch of anonymous support, so I wanted to do something a little different from the endless iterations of “Get Well Soon” they’d be getting.
Here’s a picture of the paper (hopefully anybody can read my handwriting):
I took ribbon and tied the notes to the animals. My scissors cannot cut ribbon, nor can I tie a bow with any amount of competence.
Patient Zero:
Another picture of the plush menagerie (less flash):
A horse, an elephant, two pigs, an orca, a lion, a zebra, and a monkey. Even Noah couldn’t have done better.
So I woke up at five in the morning to avoid the awful Boston traffic to drive down to Boston Children’s Hospital to drop off the stuffed animals. I had no idea whether or not that was a thing I could do.
<3 Good morning 5AM <3
If an alarm isn’t jarring enough, forget to turn your flash off right when you wake up. My eyes.
When I got to the hospital, I first had to wade through the sort of wall of police offices that were outside. Once I was inside, I walked up to the information desk (I had no idea where else to go) and told the woman behind the counter that I had heard that some of the pediatric patients from the bombing were being treated there and that I wanted to drop off the stuffed animals for them (I also don’t know the ages or genders of any of the victims). I was given a form to fill out with my name, address, phone number, and the contents of my donation. It was that simple, which is great. Hopefully, getting a stuffed animal will make them feel just a little bit better.
I have no idea what kind of impact I’ve made today, if any, but at least I tried. We must remember to never give in to fear and what fear brings with it.
Bonus parking receipt:
Only $8 for eighteen minutes. What a deal.
