The Cranky Stroke Of Justice

My library seems to be an eventful one. I write of it often, but then I am there often. I spend a half hour there at least every three days, and this is a marked drop-off from my early days in LA when I had no computer and no internet. I spent two hours there every day, and when that's the case you see some things. You also become intimately familiar with the characters, the relationships and the common conflicts.

Another rather interesting (to me) drama played out within earshot at my current local branch the other day, but not under my direct gaze, because watching would have meant being involved. Two young men entered and came to the dvd section where I was. I did not notice them at first, really. To me they were just more bodies clogging the small area around the shelves, blocking me from quickly perusing them and locating movies I wanted.

I really noticed them when I began to hear an exchange play out not between the two of them, but between then and an old man. It took a while to piece together the conflict, but I came to understand that the pair had somehow parked in an unethical, probably illegal fashion. I can only speculate as to the exact nature of it, but can imagine that they may have double parked, parked at a red curb, or possibly dinged another car. Whatever it was, it would have to entail something the old man believed would warrant a ticket.

They stonewalled him, amusedly responding to his rage with witty rejoinders. I perceived that they did not take him seriously, that they saw him as a notch lower and thus not capable of touching them in any meaningful way. I thought that at least while he was still there. He left, frustrated in his attempt to remonstrate them. That was when their fear was revealed, as they worriedly spoke of whether they should go back out to their car now to address whatever condition might get them a ticket. If only the old man could have seen how his words had worked.

Who can get all their entertainment from the television when there are things like that going on out there? Not only are they all the more powerful and affecting for being real and live before your eyes, they're free as well! Few tv shows that I have loved can hope to match the response that this little play yielded from me. Better than much of what is scripted, better than any reality tv for its being real reality, this live theater gets from me four stars.