Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Life is Full of Surprises

Good ones, like meeting someone in real life that you really click with. A huge surprise because if I had read a “profile,” of this person, I would have passed him by in a quick minute. Lots of other reasons this connection was a surprise, but suffice it to say, it made the end of the summer (and the beginning of autumn — my favorite time of year) one of the best of my life.

And not so good ones, like hanging out on my patio with above friend and my next door neighbor last weekend having drinks, grilling dinner and watching in disbelief as two young, white males come walking down the hill in back of my house. They came from “the big house” at the top of the hill. They walked down along the fence line, and I wondered to myself (and then out loud) what are these guys doing? “Are they coming down to introduce themselves as neighbors?” No! They were cutting through my yard — with all the privilege and arrogance of GW Bush himself. “Steve” claimed that he thought “Greg” knew us (he sure acted like it). But “Greg” was the biggest little prick I’ve ever had the misfortune of “meeting.” He felt he had every right to just cut through my yard with no comment to me, no introduction — or explanation! I’m still in shock.

Good thing my friend was there. He was able to calm me down, and have a somewhat civilized conversation with them. Got us to introduce ourselves. (I was outraged and ready to punch that little prick!) It was a very good example of the entitlement this most recent crop of WMU students have. It’s shocking to me, though I’m not sure why. I see examples of it everyday living in Kalamazoo. I guess it was because it was literally in my own back yard.