Eastbound Powell Blvd at SE 92nd Stopped at Traffic Light in Lane #1
Must have been twelve years old, thirteen at most. It was before I started skateboarding.
The majority of my childhood had annual highlights, one of them being having my cousin and his family travel from Edmonton, Alberta -- The "Wild Rose" Province of Canada. Generally they would travel down for Christmas and then again in July, where our extended family had a beach outing. And this year was no different, my Canuck Cousin was staying with me and after an exciting night out on the town, with some older Cousins (I think) we stopped at McDonalds. I think it was McDonalds, we were being driven home. My cousin was in the driver's side back seat, I was in the passenger side backseat. Someone was in the middle. I don't remember who. For some reason I had picked up some nutritional pamphlets. For some reason, while in the backseat of the car, travelling due east on Powell Blvd (AKA State Highway 26) in the left land, somewhere between 60th and 92nd street, I was holding the pamphlets up to the window and pointing to them, trying to get the attention of a car in the right lane.
I got their attention. At the intersection of 92nd and Powell the light was red and our car, and the car of unknown people were stopped. We were next to each other. The driver exited his vehicle and came to my window -- he looked angry. My window was rolled all the way up; however, the window that my cousin controlled was rolled either partially or fully down. The angry man proceeded to the other side of the car and was yelling, with vulgarities. He may have requesting information as to why we (I) were holding papers up to the window and attempting to gain their attention. None of us had a good answer, including me, but especially the other passengers in the car who knew nothing of what had transpired for the previous 30 or so blocks. I'm not sure if my cousin responded to the inquiries or had much to say regarding the insults and such; but I do remember the angry man striking my cousin in the head. Was it open handed or closed fist? I'm not sure. It was a glancing blow, it did no permanent damage but it was scary.
This was before the days of cell phones and easily accessible cameras. My cousin took it all in stride; in general I think Canadians are a well adjusted, strong people. He is no exception.
We drove home with no other incidents.
At that time of my life, and as I see other young people, there is an element of "randomness equals funny" and, I think I had that going on. While occupying my "armchair psychologist" role, I see this as a mechanism of maturation, in that being "random" is a way to garner attention, and in some ways the person thinks it lends an air of mystery to themselves. In my childhood and even into my teen years I spent most of my time with people older than myself, some of this was because my parents were the Youth Group leaders at the church we grew up in, and I had an earlier introduction into that whole thing than I would have otherwise, part of it is that is just how the age ranges of my extended family shook out. Nevertheless, I often felt that I needed to get attention somehow, which often leads to negative aspects coming forth through behavior.
I thought it was "randomly" funny to hold nutritional pamphlets up to a car window and point to them while riding in a car.
I'm glad that incident ended with no, relative, harm done. No knfing. No GSW. Sorry old friend, I definitely felt bad after that happened.
What makes people react with such a quickness to anger? The dude who struck my cousin, if I remember correctly, was probably in his early 20's and I think he was white -- which is not a stretch in Portland. Sometimes I feel like I can sink into a reactive quagmire where my first, subconscious instinct is to feel anger -- that someone is imposing on me, or threatening to me, or is it a need to threaten them first? I think all those elements can get mixed in there, and, while I can only speak definitely for myself, I don't subscribe wholeheartedly to Solipsism as a framework for my reality and am willing to ascribe the previous ratios to other human beings. But I'm not usually like this, and when left to my own devices, with a relatively (and I say this with a big relative component here) low stress stretch, I feel like I am well adjusted with an ability to pause and process a situation before assuming the worst of everyone.
Another element comes to my mind while thinking this through; getting burned by patients and seeing how deceptive and manipulative some people are takes a toll. Often to feed a substance abuse problem, but also anxiety and true mental illness can force patients to lie about symptoms. This is not news to anyone, especially those in healthcare, but we, as providers, get better and while it is a headache and a time sink (taking away from patients who legitimately need medical attention, by the way) but this is not my point.
I wonder what that guy is up to now -- the one who took such offence to my nutritional pamphlets that he needed to strike one in our party. Does he remember that night? I would guess not -- someone that prone to physical violence probably has a lot of incidents over the years. I hope whatever pushed him into such an explosive reactionary mindset is resolved. Hopefully he isn't teaching his kids to respond in a manner as he did that night.
The majority of my childhood had annual highlights, one of them being having my cousin and his family travel from Edmonton, Alberta -- The "Wild Rose" Province of Canada. Generally they would travel down for Christmas and then again in July, where our extended family had a beach outing. And this year was no different, my Canuck Cousin was staying with me and after an exciting night out on the town, with some older Cousins (I think) we stopped at McDonalds. I think it was McDonalds, we were being driven home. My cousin was in the driver's side back seat, I was in the passenger side backseat. Someone was in the middle. I don't remember who. For some reason I had picked up some nutritional pamphlets. For some reason, while in the backseat of the car, travelling due east on Powell Blvd (AKA State Highway 26) in the left land, somewhere between 60th and 92nd street, I was holding the pamphlets up to the window and pointing to them, trying to get the attention of a car in the right lane.
I got their attention. At the intersection of 92nd and Powell the light was red and our car, and the car of unknown people were stopped. We were next to each other. The driver exited his vehicle and came to my window -- he looked angry. My window was rolled all the way up; however, the window that my cousin controlled was rolled either partially or fully down. The angry man proceeded to the other side of the car and was yelling, with vulgarities. He may have requesting information as to why we (I) were holding papers up to the window and attempting to gain their attention. None of us had a good answer, including me, but especially the other passengers in the car who knew nothing of what had transpired for the previous 30 or so blocks. I'm not sure if my cousin responded to the inquiries or had much to say regarding the insults and such; but I do remember the angry man striking my cousin in the head. Was it open handed or closed fist? I'm not sure. It was a glancing blow, it did no permanent damage but it was scary.
This was before the days of cell phones and easily accessible cameras. My cousin took it all in stride; in general I think Canadians are a well adjusted, strong people. He is no exception.
We drove home with no other incidents.
At that time of my life, and as I see other young people, there is an element of "randomness equals funny" and, I think I had that going on. While occupying my "armchair psychologist" role, I see this as a mechanism of maturation, in that being "random" is a way to garner attention, and in some ways the person thinks it lends an air of mystery to themselves. In my childhood and even into my teen years I spent most of my time with people older than myself, some of this was because my parents were the Youth Group leaders at the church we grew up in, and I had an earlier introduction into that whole thing than I would have otherwise, part of it is that is just how the age ranges of my extended family shook out. Nevertheless, I often felt that I needed to get attention somehow, which often leads to negative aspects coming forth through behavior.
I thought it was "randomly" funny to hold nutritional pamphlets up to a car window and point to them while riding in a car.
I'm glad that incident ended with no, relative, harm done. No knfing. No GSW. Sorry old friend, I definitely felt bad after that happened.
What makes people react with such a quickness to anger? The dude who struck my cousin, if I remember correctly, was probably in his early 20's and I think he was white -- which is not a stretch in Portland. Sometimes I feel like I can sink into a reactive quagmire where my first, subconscious instinct is to feel anger -- that someone is imposing on me, or threatening to me, or is it a need to threaten them first? I think all those elements can get mixed in there, and, while I can only speak definitely for myself, I don't subscribe wholeheartedly to Solipsism as a framework for my reality and am willing to ascribe the previous ratios to other human beings. But I'm not usually like this, and when left to my own devices, with a relatively (and I say this with a big relative component here) low stress stretch, I feel like I am well adjusted with an ability to pause and process a situation before assuming the worst of everyone.
Another element comes to my mind while thinking this through; getting burned by patients and seeing how deceptive and manipulative some people are takes a toll. Often to feed a substance abuse problem, but also anxiety and true mental illness can force patients to lie about symptoms. This is not news to anyone, especially those in healthcare, but we, as providers, get better and while it is a headache and a time sink (taking away from patients who legitimately need medical attention, by the way) but this is not my point.
I wonder what that guy is up to now -- the one who took such offence to my nutritional pamphlets that he needed to strike one in our party. Does he remember that night? I would guess not -- someone that prone to physical violence probably has a lot of incidents over the years. I hope whatever pushed him into such an explosive reactionary mindset is resolved. Hopefully he isn't teaching his kids to respond in a manner as he did that night.
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