I visited St. Clair Days for the first time. The rain from earlier in the week didn’t seem to halt any of Sunday’s planned activities. In fact, the sky had cleared quite well before I made my exit. There is something about a blue sky that can rejuvenate a spirit that has been weathered by the, uh, weather. Though my soul and body were in near synchronous moods, a question struck me that disturbed the waters of my mind’s thinking pool. “Are you lost?”, what a silly question. Truly, I doubt there was any kind of malicious meaning behind the question, but a cliché such as that really held my attention. Perhaps my gaze, which, with my broken eyes, was held upon an unexpected view, made the asker wary of my presence and invoked their singular disarming question.
“Are you lost?”, conjures memories of television and movie scenes where a character is likely to be assailed by the person, or people, asking the question. “Are you lost?”, how infuriating, honestly. No, I was not lost. My destination, actually, was only a few tens of feet away, and I don’t appreciate unwarranted concern. This is America, God bless it, and if a person wants to explore the streets of a town, then they ought to be able to without the buzzing of some gate-keeping bee in their ear. I’m quite serious about being upseted by such a question. How could I have looked lost to anyone! A man walking down a street with his head held up and camera around his neck is the last person I’d assume to be lost. No business of theirs, really, to go asking such a condescending question of someone who’s sure of their path. Perhaps it seems to others that my gripe is unwarranted or exaggerated, and if that is or is not the case, then let this be an example of why feelings like pride, in excess, are historically dubbed “deadly sins”, for all my chagrin and ire may be wasted on something quite forgettable and meaningless.
Still, I hold that anyone may be wounded by oblivious questioning of their actions. Unless that is their intent, of course; to be asked oblivious questions. With that intent, I welcome the questioning of a person’s conduct. There was a story I heard once of an Ancient Greek philosopher, of sorts. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but this Grecian had a knack for doing outlandish things. Walking about naked or performing damnable acts in public were the Greek’s daily tasks. Everything he did was questioned by the people, “Why does this mad man act in this manner?” They would ask themselves why because that is what the Philosopher wanted them to. His public displays of obscenity were meant to open the minds of the people towards empathy and understanding, as I see it. By getting people to question his actions, perhaps they could find the wisdom to not judge him under their presumptions, perhaps he could inspire them to rise above themselves.
In closing, one of my favorite parts on St. Clair Days was listening to the hyped cheers of parents watching their children compete in the tractor pull. That’s the kind of energy I hope to emulate one day. In fact, I’ll probably kick it up a notch or two. Win or lose, you should always hype up your team.