I really don't have time for one of my rambling posts tonight because of rehearsal and the fact that Mr. Moon and Jason caught a deer so I'll just give you one thing that happened today:
I was at the eye doctor and had my new contacts in and they'd told me to just walk around and try to adjust for awhile and while I was doing that, two women, one in prison-guard garb, escorted in a lady wearing red scrubs who had her wrists bound together with a heavy-duty-looking chain that clanked and rattled and wrapped around her waist, too. They sat down and of course I had to eavesdrop and observe and so I sat down across from them. I wondered what the woman in red had done, remembering a conversation I had once with a guard from a woman's prison who told me that most women in prison were there because they hadn't ratted out their drug-dealer boyfriends.
The woman couldn't fill out her own forms, of course, so I heard a great deal of her medical history and everything seemed real chill and all and they were still there when I was leaving and me, being the old liberal that I am, smiled at the woman in red like, "Hey, I'm a human, you're a human, I am not judging you just because you have chains on and howdy!"
And that woman gave me a look that chilled me to my bones and all I could think of was, "That woman could cut a bitch. Thank god she's in chains."
You learn something every day.
"Girl, I will cut.you." -- Bon Qui Qui
ReplyDeleteBon Qui Qui knows.
Amazing how looks can kill. Maybe the woman in red and chains felt humiliated, or patronised- not that you intended as much - or as you suggest, she was just plain hateful.
ReplyDeleteYou know there are some sad folks who because of their traumatic experience can confuse love and hate. To them a kind and empathic acknowledgement becomes one of malevolence.
Sometimes it's a sad, bad, mad world, Ms Moon, as well you know.
I imagine that when you are that powerless, so wretchedly stripped of your dignity, that one of the only ways you can get back at life is to spew out, even if only through your eyes, the venom that lives inside of you. It might feel like power to you to be able to intimidate in that way. Sad, because the truth would be just the opposite. But so hard to get to when your all bound up, figuratively or literally.
ReplyDeleteYikes!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkdcYlOn5M -- for those in which my comment makes absolutely no sense :) You're welcome for the smile :)
ReplyDeleteThey "caught a deer"? Like on videotape? Or perhaps they caught it acting like a cat? Or did you mean to say they killed or shot a deer? I'm just completely unfamiliar with the euphemism.
ReplyDeleteDeer in the headlights--maybe she is psycho or perhaps just so damaged. Those looks can't kill, thankfully.
ReplyDeleteThat's happened to me once or twice in my life, and I shiver and wonder if there is, in fact, a devil incarnate. (But just for a moment)
ReplyDeleteBabyGirl asks if I, "caught" a deer; she grew up fishing first so everything is caught to her if it's destiny is our plate.
ReplyDeleteAnd BabyMama gives me that same chill look when I suggest the red jumpsuit and chains outfit, you know, for funsies nights.
dammit! "it's" should be "its"; I threw up in my mouth a little seeing such an amateur mistake on my own post. deep chagrin
ReplyDeleteSJ- I'm glad you put in a link because I was clueless.
ReplyDeleteElisabeth- Yep. You're right on all counts but the bottom line is- some people are NOT, for whatever reason, safe to be free in general society.
liv- I agree. And I was thinking all of those things but in the end, I was just glad I wasn't in her chains.
Ellen Abbott- I know!
Anonymous- Yes. The shot one. Sorry.
Syd- She didn't want to mess with being nice to me and she didn't have to. I sort of respected that.
Elizabeth- Well, it wasn't that bad but it was like maybe she'd danced with the devil on levels deeper than I have.
Magnum- Due to the contact lens situation, I didn't even notice. No apologies, okay? This is not English class. Thank god. Also, you can get chains like that at the hardware store. Why your wife wouldn't voluntarily let you bind her with something you could tow a boat with is beyond me. I suggest more tequila.
Who knows what we would act like, do, or look, or see, if we were forced to submit to such degradation as to be chained in a public setting. I think I would hate those who are free all about me and saw me in such a condition. Perhaps you merely saw pride reacting to a feeling of being patronized.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I am sure that was not your intention.
As our jails and prisons overcrowd humans into boxes of despair and danger, does anyone bother to ask any longer what brings a person to such a condition? Maybe they wrote bad checks, maybe they did hurt another physically, but why did they do so? Who knows, but we can certainly lock them up and treat them like animals with no qualms at all about it. Or so it seems.
Ha! :)
ReplyDeleteRubye Jack- Well, of course that was what I was thinking when I smiled at her. Honestly, I just meant that post to make fun of my own liberal leanings.
ReplyDeleteStephanie- You got it.
I apologize if I sounded harsh Mary. This is just one of my soft spots--women, or anyone for that matter, in prison and how our society simply does not give a damn about helping those with less or who are different. I suppose it is one of my soap box issues but your blog is not the place for me to climb up on it.
ReplyDeleteRubye Jack- You did NOT sound harsh. And you know what? She was in a fine medical clinic getting whatever was wrong with her eyes taken care of and if she wasn't in prison, I bet you that wouldn't have happened so in a way- it was a good thing.
ReplyDelete