Notes from a few Travels

This overheard in a Murray’s Bagels on 23rd st and 8th Ave.
An unremarkable New Yorker in glasses and a backpack asked for one of the men working behind the counter, out to the side– “I was in here yesterday and stormed out, impatient – I think it was you...was it you?” Some response that I can’t quite catch comes...along the lines of “You certainly were in a hurry”. “So it was you. I came back – I have to tell you – I’m sorry – I hadn’t had any coffee, I was feeling in a big rush, I was wrong, I shouldn’t have acted that way; I’m sorry.” (This was, if it matters, a clearly mid-range certainly at least somewhat well-off white guy – the man who had been behind the counter was Latino) . Again something I couldn’t quite make out – must have been a protestation – something in the style ‘I’m sure you had your reasons, it’s OK, I understand’– some such thing – because it triggered the response “No, I really had no right to act that way, and I apologise”. He was thanked for his apology, hands were shaken with some warmth, and the man with backpack went on his way. I nodded approvingly as he went – wanting to thank him for being brave enough – or taking the care to go back and set something right – but was a bit too bashful to raise my voice. So, I nodded and smiled, and then a young woman to my right – dressed in such a fashion that I would have taken her for the usual self-indulgent apathetic type –speaking perhaps to me in response to my movement, perhaps on her own, to the room general, said simply “That just made my day”. Then she went on about buying her large Latte, I my 1/2 dozen bagels to take back, and we all went on our way. I found myself wondering if this would have happened a year ago, or if, because the language of our public discourse has changed somewhat – because we have been stirred to remember the value of something beyond simply getting ahead – that words such as we, us and our have been used unashamedly by someone in a position of prominence and influence. I certainly hope so, because it would show the real possibility of an improvement in the quality of our daily social interaction. A nice thought.