Is all ever as it seems?

Posted on | March 23, 2009 |

The other morning I nearly crushed another human being.  Driving down the road I met, in the middle of the lane coming towards me, a woman pushing a shopping trolley.  The sidewalk was not to her liking, but antiquated Buicks offering imminent destruction around curves were, it seemed, much more her cup of tea.

This person is a fixture in our neighborhood, although seldom in the middle of the road.  She pushes her trolley which is heaped with blankets, and in the middle of the blankets rests a dachshund wearing a tartan coat, a wooly hat with a red bobble, and a series of extra blankets, just in case.  This woman is taking her dog for a walk.

These days the dog is gray-muzzled, blinks sleepily, and seems entirely content with this arrangement.

In the past, when I’d see this woman, I’d do a mental head-shake and wonder about people generally.  Then one day I was watching her do her ritual walk and I made the connection.  Dachshunds have bad backs legendarily.  Something to do with being overbred and over long.  But now I made the connection - the woman pushing the trolley also had a bad back.  Watch her carefully and you’ll see that she leans on the bar under her hands.  She probably can’t walk very well without this trolley; as it is it gives her support, and she can walk each day.  The dog, similarly afflicted, becomes a cover for her, a ‘reason’ to take the shopping cart when her pride might rebel at using a walker.

She’s not confessed this to me, so I may be wrong.  But it has taught me not to jump to judgments. And so I am grateful.

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