Yesterday, Julie and I headed over to our personal mechanic's shop in a boring business district of Sacramento. He was fixing our new civic's automatic window cuz it had jammed and while I was admiring how fast and skilled his (pardon the racial terminology) little Asian fingers worked- an SUV carrying a furiously enraged black woman barreled into the parking lot and screeched to a halt. The aforementioned woman bursted from the vehicle, storming her way into the shop where she proceeded to shout umentionable (yet creative) words and phrases directed towards her overweight husband, a mechanic employed at the shop.
Okay, she was SCREAMING. I think we could have heard her from Folsom. We were all doing our best to pretend like we weren't listening, but soon the action escalated and exploded from inside the shop out into the parking lot (where my mechanic was operating). The woman (scorned) ran around her SUV, banging her fists into various locations of the vehicle, cursing quite proficiently, and then jumped inside the driver's side, attempting to leave her dumbfounded husband in the dust. He, however, opened the door and got halfway in as she floored it. Another round of cursing, and then she grabbed him by the collar of his mechanic's garb, and wouldn't let go. She was strangling him. It was a stalemate for about 5 minutes, and then she floored it and they disappeared into heavy traffic. This was all happening about ten feet from us.
Julie and I found it a little difficult to process this whole thing. Sure, we've seen people fight, and TV sitcoms are pretty good at creating dramatic situations to laugh at, but this was so degrading-- so emasculating-- so violent-- we saw the world in a little darker shade that day, I think. What would possess this woman into thinking that it would be okay to burst into her husband's workplace and make a total ass out of him in front of his peers? What could have happened that would be so worth putting their lives and the lives of anyone else they drive near in jeopardy? Is this commonplace among couples? Did they see their own parents do this? Do they know their parents? Am I just completely out of touch with real life?
Tonight Julie and I sat out on our patio with Ellie, enjoyed the cool night air, sipped strong libations, puffed on a fabulous cigar and cloves, and pondered life and our place in it. It was a time when we remembered why we love each other and how blessed we are.
Cheers.
