June 26, 2009 Saturday in the Park

...I think it was the 4th of July. (who sang this? Dad had just picked us up from the airport, orange sporty car and all). Ate a local country-style picnic a few nights ago. So many people did not recognize me. Others glanced and walked away. While one shook my hand, another cowered in the corner. I saw people I never thought that I would ever see again. It was really strange, like going back to another time and place. LLllloooooovvvvveeeeeddd seeing the toddlers dance, the spontaneity of the moments, and the simple people-watching. Since I spent so much time in bed for the last three years, and this was my first summer picnic in the same amount of time, I wanted to try to have fun. 

Drudgery to be resting all day long, in bed so that I could stand after 6 pm. A little excited to go to this local picnic, but mostly because I get to go with my daughter in the car. Spend some time helping her eat. Spend some time looking for her, to make sure she is okay. Boy, if she ever got lost, I would be frantic. I wonder who, if anyone, would stop to notice that I had a problem and  I needed help. Would you stop eating your dinner and look up to inquire about the problem specifically, even if the music stopped? Who would be in charge, in a moment's notice, of gathering a possie to send troops in every direction? Are we all duped into believing that 'everybody' is suddenly 'watching my child(ren)' for me, as if we are all brothers and sisters and no one would or could ever kidnap a child from this area? Perhaps people want to think that things are not too bad, and they fool themselves into thinking they can talk and watch a child at the same time. Or perhaps, as many people have seen, we reach a 'comfort' zone wherein our defenses are down and we are just not thinking straight. Oh well. One can fester about human nature and the state of inertness to disaster. We all want to be the one hero that paid attention and helped this poor lost child get back to her parents. It seemed like 100 people could have been that hero. I am disabled and I can not just get up from my chair and start running around to solve this problem. However, my eagle eyes absorbed human nature in action and the memory still haunts me. I know that each one of us, had we known, would have intervened to save a lost child. But as a group, we were ineffective and inefficient. Confusion abounded. Confusion and ignorance; it was not any one person's fault, yet it was everyone's fault. I love love love seeing the couple that intervened without thought, as if by simple kindness. He helped figure the whole thing out, while she worked in concert as if it was practiced over and over again. So natural. So nice to see. Aaahhhh. Humanity is not all lost.