A Bit of Personal Stuff (Part one)

Since this blog has been, and will continue to be completely unread, I will throw out some personal information. Who knows, maybe it will be therapeutic.  

I’ve always been interested in nature. When I grew up, we lived across the street from a couple of acres of woodlot. A tiny creek ran through it. This was in the suburbs of Boston. I would go over into the woods and explore. I’d turn over rocks and small, decaying logs to see what was underneath. I would study tree leaves. I’d look to see how they were structured, and what insects were on them. I would have my ears opened too. Any unusual bird calls would catch my attention. This crazy interest of mine began when I was about eight years old and it is still going on today, although these days I have a lot more interests that are using my time.

I went to Cornell to study nature, natural resources, technically. I had a great time there. In the early summer of 2007, following my sophomore year, I visited a city park here in Boston just to look around and get some fresh air. Going down a trail, I came along a guy examining what looked to be on odd piece of bark, holding it in the palm of his hand, only I knew it wasn’t bark he was holding. The man was about 30 or so and not particularly good-looking, but not ugly either. With a smile upon my face, I informed him that I thought he was holding a piece of fox or raccoon poop. He dropped it instantly, as though it were burning his hands. It was pretty funny. I then continued on down the trail.

A short time later I saw the same guy in the parking lot as I was walking to my car. He told me that he knew he was being forward, but that he wondered if I would be interested in going for an ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen. He told me that it was a way of thanking me for informing him about the poop he had mistakenly been holding. Although he surprised me by coming up to me and inquiring, I found his offer sort of sweet, maybe even quaint. I mean; the Dairy Queen. Still, I told him no thanks. After all, I did not know him at all.

He climbed into his car and I climbed into mine. I was right behind him as we drove the road that led out of the park. When we got to the main road it started to rain. He turned right, and after a couple of cars went by, I turned right too, headed for home. We traveled down a block or two to a red traffic light where we came to a halt with me a few cars behind. There, off on the side of the road at this intersection was an older woman waiting at a bus stop in the rain. Suddenly, fifty feet up ahead, the guy who had offered me a trip to the Dairy Queen hurried out of his car with a closed umbrella in his hand. As he rushed to the woman at the bus stop he popped open the umbrella. He presented it to the completely shocked woman, and then scampered through the rain, back to his car.

I had never seen such an act of kindness before, and it completely blew me away. I was so taken that for a moment I did not put my foot on the gas and consequently received a horn toot from the driver behind me, urging me to get moving.

I am not exactly an assertive person socially, but I knew that I had to follow this man. I paid close attention to his car until it turned into an apartment parking lot a few minutes later. I pulled up alongside, lowered my car’s passenger window, and asked him if he knew of a nearby Dairy Queen. It turned out that he did.