Provincetown is magic, at least, for me, it is unlike any other village I have lived or loved. I was walking down, Commercial Street, the main hub of life, on my way to my part-time job. An older woman was pushing a tiny shopping cart with one tiny yellow plastic bag, inside an overly large white plastic bag, and she was talking, not necessarily to herself, to passerby’s. She had a torn floral Mumu kind of ill-fitting dress and was wearing one brown sock and one almost white sock. I saw her, she saw me looking at her and thus began a conversation regarding a very prominent and old building The Provincetown Library. I knew of the building and the history, but all this lady wanted, was to tell me, she was not interested in what I knew, but that I was good enough, as she told me, to listen. I asked if she needed some assistance, but she was already walking away, slowly trying to find someone else for which she could relate the tale of the Library. I became worried for her welfare, and found a Police officer, explaining that this woman was doing no harm, but without shoes, a dirty ill-fitting Mumu and almost talking in circles, perhaps someone might check in on her. The Police officer was honestly caring, but said, oh I saw her yesterday, but since no one mentioned anything, I just let her be. I asked that the Police officer please at least walk over and speak with her. I waited until he did, and then began my way to work, and suddenly, as if I had just done LSD, I began to see Commercial Street, more vividly and noticed the nooks and crannies of a street with which I thought I was very familiar.
And as I perseverated over the lady in the socks, my mind began to wander, and I wondered…Is the current world in which we live, a place where ALL of us look, but we only see what we want? Is it a world full of freedom, but our own inabilities to actually be free stop us from living a full life? And I wondered, did I just suddenly STOP this woman with just socks from her piece of the world, by asking a police officer to intervene…which might mean asking Adult Protective Services to take control of this woman’s life? What did I see, and did I see the same thing as this woman, and whose vision was more correct?
I am anxious, angst-ridden and angry that our nation is still debating on Guns, and the murder and mayhem guns create, and the evil intent some gun owners have in mind. You shoot to kill, and there is a debate…a debate about what, did the person die because a person with a gun murdered them, but they were going to die anyway, someday? Am I seeing this world differently, is my vision blurred? And if it is not blurred, then why the FUCK is there STILL a debate on gun safety We still debate that guns are weapons of murder, but it’s the person who owns the gun as to whether it a good or bad murderer? Almost, and I say that with caution on celebration, three more mass shootings…I am not seeing the same things as the rest of this nation?
