Yesterday, I found myself at a red light at the intersection of Linebaugh and Nebraska (in Tampa) at exactly 9am- so, pretty much at the end of morning rush hour. I was the first car in line and there were several cars beside me and behind me in broad daylight.. sun shining, birds chirping, kittens purring…a really nice Friday morning. Interrupting my commute, the car behind me starts beeping his horn and the light is RED. I can’t go anywhere but this guy keeps beeping the horn. This guy happened to be in a 1990-something Buick? Oldsmobile? Cadillac? I don’t know- it was a big car with wheels that belonged on a Monster truck. Black tinted windows, bass booming…you get the idea.
So just as I was beginning to feel a tad nervous- just a tad because I’m stupid enough to not let stereotypes in a sketchy part of town bother me very much- a guy steps off of the curb, through the cars, and hands the guy behind me in the gigantic car a bag about the size of the palm of my hand. In exchange, he received a nicely folded sum of money, maneuvered back through the cars and as the light turned green, I literally had to remind myself to close my mouth that was hanging wide open and to push down on the accelerator. So the guys needing drugs just blow their horn at a busy intersection now when they need their stuff? So dealers just stand at bus stops with moms and 
babies and wait for a horn to be blown before they jump on mass transit? Am I dumb for thinking this only took place at 11pm and with a little more subtlety?
Ugh. Crap. What is going on when drugs are dealt like someone is buying a newspaper? Not a care about WHO saw WHAT. I get more paranoid when I go 5 miles over the speed limit than this guy who just grabbed his morning necessity rather than rolling through Starbucks like everybody else.
I don’t know. I’m old, I guess. Old enough to just think that’s the craziest display of “I don’t give a ****” that I’ve seen recently. It really makes me want to leave here for greener pastures…literally greener pastures. Ireland pastures. Not Dublin- more like Cork. People were so pleasant there. Genuinely friendly. Bartenders, servers, convenience store workers, doormen, B&B owners, rental car people, shop clerks…everyone. No horn blowing and no paranoia about locked car doors.
But I love Tampa. I do. This isn’t a “Tampa” thing. I don’t even know if this is a “United States” thing. Fewer people care about laws (which are biased toward the affluent) or integrity (whether anyone is looking or not) or even consequences. People cheat at their job, in their marriage, on their exams, job applications…Where does it end? What has happened is desperation, I think. Unemployment is terrible, education costs are high, company loyalty sucks and 401k’s have plummeted. People need money and they need a form of escape~ and escape can look different for everyone.
It can make us cynical, can’t it? The world kind of feels like it’s going to “hell in a hand basket”. My parents said this is in the 80’s. Their parents said this in the 50’s. ARE things getting worse? Do people not give a crap about consequences and morals and right and wrong and justice and injustice? Did they ever?
I know we’re all born with sin- I get it.
I also think we’re all born inherently good.
So… it’s a pretty confusing place. This world.
NOW…because I do believe in finding the good, like I said in my last blog, here it goes. I accelerated, did my errand, and returned home safely.