Act, Shawn! Act! … is what the director wanted to shout. Instead, he just delivered his countdown, yet again, to watch Shawn freeze up as the camera lights flickered back on.
No movements, no gestures, no exertion. Is Shawn even breathing? He’s turning purple, OMG, cut … cut!!
“The ultimate luxury in life remains nature.” ~ Robert Rabensteiner
Thoughts, Tuesday, March 10th, 2022
~ Stranger Responsibilities
Asking a stranger to protect my possessions from other strangers. Mmmkay. How nuts is that?
I’d love to go to the restroom and not have to piecemeal my stuff and my body into the stall, hugging the door, smearing my back along the wall while the toilet paper dispenser jabs into my thighs without dunking anything into the toilet bowl. God, I’d love to just go alone, leave this stuff here …
But as I look around the room scanning all the strangers – all of them could be thieves, thieves I say! It would be nice to have a hero come along and rescue me, just a quick rescue, basically to just sit close to my belongings and look like they’re sort of watching them, at least appearing to, while I take care of a few little things. Ah, to be free. But I’ll probably have to lug all my stuff with me. However, wait a minute! It seems as though the person sitting next to me is, could be, could be … trustworthy. Well, they’re not stealing anything right now, in front of me from me, so that’s definitely a good sign. Yeah, you know what, they’ve got to be decent, a saint perhaps and they’re sitting right next to me – talk about luck. I found the perfect guardian for my belongings right here … beside me! Life is funny.
If they accept my request then how long are they verbally contracted to stand guard, 10 minutes, 1 hour, a week?
To what extent should the upright citizen stranger care for the items? Should they brush off a pest, defend a real perpetrator, and/or potentially lie on top of the bags and take a bullet?
Perhaps we should carry around a card with our particular guidelines as to what level of security we will provide for another as well as what we expect ourselves.
Either way, why do we ask strangers to watch our items?
BTW, if they accept too eagerly, I’d fire them and carry every item to the toilet this round. Jeez, that was close.
“Mankind was not made to suffer. Bliss is our nature.” ~ David Lynch
Kim Considine 
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