Wheelchair Power-not what you think

Still enjoying my Harry Potter high…only on page 180-not in a rush. The madness to get the book on Friday night was a little more than I expected, so I was glad to have it in with the employees at Barnes and Noble (since Adam’s one of them!) because I had to take shelter behind the counter during the final few moments before the book release. There were too many anxious walkers with wands! I had my book by 12:17am and as we crossed the street to the awaiting Jeep, some stranger in the crowd yelled, “Wheelchair power!” in a mocking tone. I wasn’t going to blog about it because it definitely was NOT the most memorable moment of the night. But as I kept thinking about NOT writing about it, I realized that part of the oddity with the situation was the embarassment-being called out with a name? statement? that in another scenario/said by an ally to my face would’ve been fine. The person who yelled it clearly didn’t want to be identified and when we turned around to the huge crowd and the cross-walk policeman, everyone’s look of total indifference was also part of the blow. I suppose I’m lucky that this has never happened to me before, but it sure is a quick way to send such a fun/carefree time to a screeching halt. We talked about it on the way home and Adam summed up his frustration with people’s need to express their feelings about the way we are with such extreme swings of the pendulum. You have to smile politely when strangers at the gas station tell you that your an inspiration (for pumping gas that is). On the same day, you have look completely oblivious to the fact that other strangers make you the target of their joke for the public. While I do feel humbled and appreciative when someone tells me they admire me for something I do, a choice I’ve made, or an aspect of my personality, the dozens of compliments on my ability to shop for groceries or continue breathing while at the mall don’t really make the blows of Friday night any better. I’ll leave you with Adam’s thoughtful quote on the matter, “Their actions speak louder than words and their stares scream what they really think.”

To prove that this event really didn’t overshadow my evening, here’s a little Harry fun. Despite the fact, they’ve never read the first page of any HP classic, Adam and Panch are clearly ecstatic as evidenced in this snapshot!

 And with that bit of sarcasm, I’m off to bed at a decent hour! I have supervision tomorrow and am looking forward to discussing the short story my supervisor suggested after our chat about devotees last week. If you’re interested too, it’s called Good Country People by Flannery O’Conner. The whole short story is available at that link. Would love to hear what you think…Can’t find when it was written but obviously before 1964 (when the author passed away). Good night!