Her honesty caught me off guard
It amazes me how quickly people will open up to strangers. All bullshit reality TV aside, it surprises me how quickly people will begin talking frankly to you if only you make the initial contact.
Yesterday, I was sitting on the half-wall by Guadalupe, waiting for the #1, and fussing with my newspaper as the wind tried to carry it away. I noticed the woman next to me, who was obviously a continuing student, have the same problem. When I glanced over, I realized the was reading the World & Nation page I put together the night before. "Excuse me," I said, "can I ask which part of that page you find most helpful. I actually laid it out last night, and I rarely get to talk to people outside the Texan about the page."
The woman looked up at me. She was skinny, late 40s, glasses, and had a worried face. "Oh, really? I was a journalism major." She made small talk about the classes, at which point I confessed to being an English major, and thus unfamiliar with those professors.
Getting back to my original question, she skimmed over the page quickly, then jabbed one of my nation briefs. "This one," she said firmly, pointing to a brief on the FDA considering the morning-after pill for over-the-counter distribution. "That one's very important to me. Although I guess not so much to you."
"Ah, yes, we knew that one would be important to people on campus."
"Yes, yes, she said, but it's especially important to me as a woman who's been raped." My reflexive reaction was shock, but subsided almost immediately, so I don't think it ever registered on my face. She had already moved on to taking a shot at religious zealot types who "stick their nose" where it doesn't belong. She obviously didn't care a whit for the extreme pro-lifers. We chatted a bit longer, and then the bus pulled up, and we parted cheerfully.
Thinking about it on the bus, I decided I was really happy that she had shared that startling detail with me. Not only did it indicate a complete lack of shame about the incident (although I guess the cynic could call it a defense mechanism), which I hope indicates some bit of societal progress, but it really drove home to me the reality of those situations. When I run briefs like that, I think of things like the morning-after pill being a great asset to rape victims only in the abstract. To see someone it could have helped literally in front of me, it is a harsh reminder that many more women than I'll probably ever realize suffer through experiences like this woman's. I wish I could do more to help than run four-inch news stories at the bottom of a college newspaper. God, there are a million things wrong with this world. Where to start?
It amazes me how quickly people will open up to strangers. All bullshit reality TV aside, it surprises me how quickly people will begin talking frankly to you if only you make the initial contact.
Yesterday, I was sitting on the half-wall by Guadalupe, waiting for the #1, and fussing with my newspaper as the wind tried to carry it away. I noticed the woman next to me, who was obviously a continuing student, have the same problem. When I glanced over, I realized the was reading the World & Nation page I put together the night before. "Excuse me," I said, "can I ask which part of that page you find most helpful. I actually laid it out last night, and I rarely get to talk to people outside the Texan about the page."
The woman looked up at me. She was skinny, late 40s, glasses, and had a worried face. "Oh, really? I was a journalism major." She made small talk about the classes, at which point I confessed to being an English major, and thus unfamiliar with those professors.
Getting back to my original question, she skimmed over the page quickly, then jabbed one of my nation briefs. "This one," she said firmly, pointing to a brief on the FDA considering the morning-after pill for over-the-counter distribution. "That one's very important to me. Although I guess not so much to you."
"Ah, yes, we knew that one would be important to people on campus."
"Yes, yes, she said, but it's especially important to me as a woman who's been raped." My reflexive reaction was shock, but subsided almost immediately, so I don't think it ever registered on my face. She had already moved on to taking a shot at religious zealot types who "stick their nose" where it doesn't belong. She obviously didn't care a whit for the extreme pro-lifers. We chatted a bit longer, and then the bus pulled up, and we parted cheerfully.
Thinking about it on the bus, I decided I was really happy that she had shared that startling detail with me. Not only did it indicate a complete lack of shame about the incident (although I guess the cynic could call it a defense mechanism), which I hope indicates some bit of societal progress, but it really drove home to me the reality of those situations. When I run briefs like that, I think of things like the morning-after pill being a great asset to rape victims only in the abstract. To see someone it could have helped literally in front of me, it is a harsh reminder that many more women than I'll probably ever realize suffer through experiences like this woman's. I wish I could do more to help than run four-inch news stories at the bottom of a college newspaper. God, there are a million things wrong with this world. Where to start?
posted by Matt at 6:07 AM
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