Losing Battle

I got my windshield replaced a couple days ago and whilst waiting for my car another fellow came in for a rock chip repair. As he sat down he started talking to me, so I put my book down and smiled politely. He started off telling me about how he got the rock chip. You see, his F-150 was only 2 weeks old, and while driving down 37 someone passed him and he got a chip in his windshield. This man went on to tell me how he chased the offending vehicle all the way to Fort Saskatchewan, but alas, he got away.

The man then picked up the newspaper and started flipping through it. I went back to my book. He started chuckling in a way that was meant for me to notice, so I looked up and saw he was looking at the sports section. He begins to tell me how overpaid these players are, the Oilers are a joke and he hasn't watched a game since the strike. They're all overpaid babies. If one of them lost all their teeth in a fight he would laugh.

What do I say to that? I said nothing and went back to my book.

Then he asks me if I knew Trudeau was in Alberta. I said no, I wasn't aware. He says to me I'd love to meet him. I thought to myself really? Wow, maybe I misjudged him. Then he continues to tell me that he would love to meet him face to face but the encounter would probably land him in jail with assault charges.

I wanted to ask the man if he was happy. Is this how you always converse with strangers? Start with the negative and go from there? Is there anything that would make you happy, or does everything everyone does offend you? Because it was obvious his shiny new expensive truck and steady job (by the way, he was there getting the chip fixed on his private vehicle on company time) wasn't enough to make him happy. As often materials things don't.

This encounter made me sad. It's hard not to pity people like this. They see only the negative and if something beautiful was in front of him he would probably only get mad that it was in the way. What do you do in a situation like this? I was not about to argue the merits of our new pm with a stranger in business lobby. But I was not about to encourage him either.

So I read my book. I want to help people be happy, but sometimes you just don't know how.