Ever had an experience where it seems the world has gone mad, and bad things arrive to bring you down?
Yeah, anyway, I had my 'Dirty Harry' moment. But let me back up and tell you my tale in chronological order. I almost didn't want to mention my bad week. Better to move on and pretend it never happened. In my experience, good and bad things occur like waves. In comes the good things and then here comes the bad things. Is this the way the universe works?
Last week I gave away more bookmarks than usual. I make the bookmarks as my Johnny Appleseed effort to make a world a little happier place. On the backs of the bookmarks are quotes from famous and not so famous people, which I skillfully write in calligraphy. I have discovered that things go well if I explain to the potential recipient that they are to use their intuition and choose the bookmark they are drawn to. Without exception, people pick a bookmark with a quote that is in line with their lives. It's a fun game and it appears to work 100% of the time. I don't know why this is true. Maybe we're all psychic.
For readers who don't know my background, let me give you an overview. I worked as an illustrator for at least thirty years. For many of those years I also worked as an art director and creative director at advertising agencies. But making the transition to doing only fine art with my artistic talents has not been easy. It is like relearning to throw a baseball. To let go and let the artistic feelings guide me rather than client's preferences. It's freedom when you aren't enslaved to creating for others instead of yourself. I can turn on the realism whenever I feel like it, but I like the surprise of literally whipping the paint at the canvas in an abstract impressionist way. Here is a painting I did years ago that I recently framed. It is titled 'Un bel après-midi,' which translates to 'A beautiful afternoon.' The process for doing this painting: I had used a board to test various colors and one day I saw the woman and her daughter in the blobs of paint. Voila; true story. I wish all paintings were that easy.
The day after I framed this art I gave away many bookmarks. I gave a couple of mandarin oranges to a lady and her teenage daughter who were begging outside Trader Joe's. I was a good person. But then the bad things began. Xfinity doubled my rates without telling me. The third world Xfinity agent I reached via phone could barely speak English. So I went to Xfinity's office and asked them for an explanation. They said there was nothing they could do. So I quit Xfinity and went to T-Mobile, who provides service for my cellphone. I told them I already had a NETGEAR router and modem that worked just fine. They said their equipment would work with what I had. All I needed to do was check if my modem had a place for a 'Sim-card.' Nope, it didn't have one. Then they said all I needed to do was get an adapter between an Ethernet cable and an HDMI cable. I searched all over town. No such adapter. I went online and found a few. All made in China. That raised my antennae because in my experience the Chinese have no scruples about lying or selling things which get Prop-65 warning labels. Products that will give buyers cancer. So I was pleased to find an adapter with the headline 'Made in America.' It arrived in a few days. A large metal rectangular box was in the kit. It had an Ethernet port on one end and an HDMI cable of the opposite end. They also had power cable ports. What? The alarm bells went off in my head. Danger! Danger! The poorly written instructions had a disclaimer that the manufacturer was not responsible for the product causing a fire or damaging my equipment. Nope. So I returned it without using it and got my money back from Amazon. Later, I learned that Ethernet to HDMI is not a reliable option, and even dangerous. The next day I went to T-Mobile to return their equipment. As I walked to the front door of the T-Mobile store the sidewalk was blocked by a bicycle. Old couples were having to squeeze by it. But I squeezed by it and entered the store. A Hispanic guy was arguing with the Hispanic woman, Maria, that I'd had a pleasant conversation with the previous day. I'd even given her a bookmark. I was about ten feet from them and asked the guy if that was his bike. And if so, could he please move it because it was blocking people on the sidewalk. He looked at me with contempt and said no one should touch his bicycle. I stepped closer, and was now about a foot from his face. I said it would only take him fifteen seconds to move it. He refused to move the bike and said “Who are you to tell me what to do with my bike?” I was ready to fight. I wanted to say, like Dirty Hairy, “I’m the guy who’s going to kick your ass in a T-Mobile store.” Or say as I showed him my concealed pistol, “This is a 357 caliber pistol, the biggest handgun in America. And if you don’t move that bike I’m going to blow a hole in you big enough to stuff a taco in it.” My mind was calculating the repercussions of my fighting this guy. Why is he dressed all in red? Was he a member of a gang? And, if so, were his gang member buddies nearby? I wondered where the Hispanic manager and Hispanic assistant manager were. Then Maria told the guy that she couldn't help him and he stormed out of the store, got on his bicycle and left. At that very moment the manager and assistant manager came from behind a metal door at the back of the store. They looked relieved the guy had left. Oh, I thought, now I get it. The troublemaker was a gang member. They hid, rather than deal with him.
Vigilante justice isn't appropriate in every situation. Having a Dirty Harry mentality is dangerous. But trusting intuition, just like when I paint, is a good idea. If the Hispanic guy, who was dressed in a bright red jogging type outfit, was a gang member, and I'd fought him and won, he'd have phoned his pals to hunt me down. I was on camera in the store. He would have to make the first move or I could be sued. Perhaps if I was a Superhero I could have used my talent to melt his bike with my laser beam eyes, or encase him in a block of ice. But I'm just an old white guy who happened to have high testosterone near the time of a full moon. Never a good time to reason with anyone. As the song lyric goes, "Saturday night's the night for fighting, get a little action in." Fight only if you have to fight. It's okay to walk away. Bravery is important, but think it through.
After my T-Mobile store situation I went back to Xfinity. A Hispanic store employee said I qualified as a new customer, even though I'd been their customer for over two years. He gave me the new customer rate, which is half what I'd been paying. Oh happy days! The good things had returned. The fickle finger of fate had decided to give me a break. A tech guy arrived the following day who set up the system in a half an hour. I am riding the wave of good things again.
