Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ujo no longer

Today as I hiked in the blazing sun across the sidewalks, accompanied by the huff and
puff of tiny dogs and the louder menace of the bigger beasts,
as I was exactly crossing the meaningless waste of a deserted shopping center,
a child (one of a group of three) greeted me.
I said hello back, and in a playful mood said, "and what did you learn in school today?"
The wise answer was: "Not to talk to strangers..."
To which I replied: "Good Idea. I should follow that policy too..."

Which elicited from said child a sarcastic reply...

Which led me to recall the last time an unknown child had spoken to me,
in Slovakia,
where the conventional way to address a male adult you don't know is as "Ujo"
or "Uncle"..

Much more friendly that...

but of course, this is not an especially friendly place.

I wondered, as I walked away, whether my garb (designed to keep off the sun)
or my carlessness had done it,
What was it that made this child think I deserved no respect?

Either way, it wasn't nice....

No comments:

Post a Comment