Driving my kid to school this morning, I turned out from my street onto one of the main roads. There was a man, an older, yet still attractive, silver haired man walking up the hill towards me. As I passed by him I smiled and lifted my fingers off of the steering wheel in a slight wave. Instead of reciprocating my friendliness, he just shook his head like there was something seriously wrong with me.
Now, in the area that I live in, a suburb of a major city, it's not unusual to be ignored. A wave and smile? It's just not done around here. So I wouldn't have been surprised at that reaction, but the shake of the head? Hmm.
I started getting really paranoid. It's not a pleasant way to start out your day. Was it because I was wearing sun glasses at 7:45 am? The sun can be blinding at that time of the morning at this time of year. Did he think I was driving too fast? There was a policeman handing out safe driving awards just over the hill, but it couldn't have been that, I was driving the speed limit. Was my hair standing up in all directions? No. Or well, not more than usual anyway. Naturally curly hair just does that. Like all the time. Was he from someplace where it's not politically correct to be friendly at that time of morning?
I wasn't putting on makeup. I wasn't talking on the phone and flicking a cig out the window while turning corners like I saw one idiot doing last week. So it couldn't have been those. So what was this man's problem? I'll never know, but gee thanks for the paranoia Mister. What a great way to start off my morning.
