Being The Bigger Person

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

Sometimes living on the same planet as 9 billion other people feels egregious. Of course we can’t get along. Of course there are wars and destitution. Of course people hurl themselves off bridges. People are terrible, especially when we don’t think we are.

Once, a woman slammed her shopping cart into the back of my parked car, then yelled at me, for being in her way. Just last week, I witnessed a woman scream at a flight attendant due to a ten-minute delay. The bathrooms on the plane were malfunctioning and this woman thought, quite adamantly, that they didn’t need fixing. We could all piss ourselves for all she cared, she had an appointment to get to.

Once, a man followed me in his car while I was running, and I ducked into a gas station to get rid of him. On a separate run, I witnessed a man pleasuring himself in a city park. After he noticed me noticing him, he screamed incoherently, white foam pouring from the corners of his mouth. Once, I watched a husband and wife fight in the middle of a crowded street, their children (and about 80 onlookers) staring at them as their voices rose higher, too high, so goddamned high. I wondered what was wrong with them. I wondered what was wrong with me.

It’s easy to be the bigger person when the person you have to act bigger than is a…