A Situation Defused

Imagine the following scenario:

"Watch where you're going!", the woman glares at me over tiny wire-frame spectacles, her eyes glinting malice from her wrinkled face. "You kicked my shopping!"

I have just tripped over this woman's woven shopping basket left lying askew in the cobbled pathway, and a tin clatters aside. "Sorry", I mumble, not too apologetically. "That basket should have been under a chair", I suggest helpfully, thinking I could have gone flying into the mud.

"Who do you think you are?" she murmurs venom. "One o' them foreigners, hmph! Think you can just walk all over me, do you? I have lived here for thirty years and I demand respect from the likes o' you."

I stare at her. I guess she heard my accent, I muse. A multitude of possible replies dance through my mind. Should I tell her to go jump in a lake to cool off? Who does she think she is anyway? I recognise this age-old game of manipulation in trying to make me feel shame and guilt because of who I am, and who she thinks she is. So what if she has lived here all her life and her family too? Is a fate of circumstance a reason for status? Why does she think that fact somehow makes her deserving of deference? Imagine being classed as more worthy of someone else because of which street you are born in, now that could make a good blog post! I tell her off in my mind, a casual smile on my face as I stare into nothing.

I am awakened from my reverie when she prods me in the ribs with her walking cane.

"Well, get a move on!" she screeches.

Light of this new morning dances before me. It is a lovely day. I pause a moment, carefully considering my answer. "God bless you. Enjoy your day", I softly say and walk on. She stops waving her cane, her face a frozen mask of surprise.

Oh I have learnt my lessons the hard way, I reflect. There was a day when I would have been unable to keep my temper in check and I might have bubbled vitriole in reply, but what is the point? I will probably never see her again and why let her animosity spoil my day? Chances are that would land me in trouble, and I imagine what people would say if they were to see me, a large buxom lady, shouting as I tower over this tiny, seemingly defenseless, woman.

I walk on and consciously drop thoughts of her tirade and the glimpse I have seen of her hate-filled mindset. I consider too that I don't know the journey she has walked to react the way she did towards me today. Did I remind her of someone she hates, I wonder? It truly is better to hold my tongue, is the last thought about the situation that fleets through my mind. If I had said something I might have spent the day regretting it, and now the memory I can hold is of her surprised face. I smile. The day suddenly seems brighter.

Jesus said, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. " (Matthew 5:43-48 KJV)