The Waiting Room

I took my’07 Mustang to an auto repair shop in Oak Harbor last week, to revitalize the air conditioning system and get some water out of my brake fluid. Simple task, right? Well, right, theoretically, except for sitting in the waiting room to get the job done. That part, not so simple.

The problem : The tv in the waiting room was on Fox “news.” There was a large sign right under the tv which said, Don’t Touch The TV. Okay, they want it on Fox news all the time. I can live with that for an hour. But I should have detected a slight vibe of danger in all that, and if I had, I would have been ready for what happened next. But I wasn’t.

There were three other men sitting in there, one engrossed in the Fox broadcast, the other, a young guy, engrossed in his cell phone. A large man, 60-ish, whom we’ll call “Big Ed,” came in and sat down two seats away from me. He watched and listened to the Fox news ranting for a few minutes, then announced, fairly loudly, “By god I hope trump wins this election! We sure need him now!”

My brain went to that “stand up for yourself” place instantly, and without further thought, I said, “I disagree.”

OMG!! NO, NO!! Did I really just say that? That, in a waiting room of active trumpers, with Fox news spewing its venom into the room? How stupid can you get… Take it back, take it back!!!

Too late. Big Ed looked over at me, and glowered, “You do??” But I’d already said way too much, and looked straight ahead, unwilling to pursue that ridiculous line of thought any further. But Big Ed now wanted his pound of flesh. “Well, I hope he wins this election, because when he does, he’s going to fire every one in the FBI… every one of them!”

The Tar Baby, he don’t say nothin’.

Big Ed actually snorted. “It was a plot all along. They tried to kill him, but they failed. And you know, I think it was an act of God. He’s still alive, and he’s going to be our president again!”

Still ain’t saying nothin’. A short heavy silence followed, then the counter girl called his name. He got up and left, and I thought that was the end of it. But I heard him easily out in the front room as he was paying up. “Trump’s gonna win it this time, right?” No response. Then, “Let’s all vote for Trump this time, okay?” Still no response. But I heard him exclaim, as he walked through the door, “They tried to get him, but they failed!”

I don’t even know where to go with this. All that happened last week, just as I wrote it. It could have gotten rough, as I’ve experienced those kinds of guys in Montana several times, especially if they’ve had a shot and a few beers with lunch. Anger flares, fists fly, and someone often gets hurt, sometimes badly. Big Ed probably wasn’t dangerous that day, just hard-riding his one mule wagon down the very narrow path of his myopic beliefs.

I guess my question might be, is it easier to be an over-bearing, belligerent, aggressive “know-it-all” than it is to be understanding, thoughtful and kind? It might seem as if our country is nearly split on the answer to that, but I don’t think so. I continue to think (and hope!) that there are way more quiet, loving people here than the other kind. The theory is that the obnoxious ones get all the press, so it might appear they are a larger herd than they actually are. I so much want that to be true, and for now I believe it is.

I watched a Harry Potter movie with B’s grandson Will the other night. Somewhere in the middle of it someone said, “It’s simple, really. There is “right” and there is “easy.” Man, did that ever speak to me! And it’s really true, isn’t it? We don’t actually try to be “right” all the time, it’s just that if we follow our hearts and have a sense of honesty and integrity about life and its continuing situations, we find it gets difficult from time to time… far more than it should.

I’ve experienced, often enough, an opportunity to express what I know to be truth to various folk in various situations. Nearly always one of them says something like, “Ahh, that’s bullshit! So and so says that blah blab blah…’” I’ve been that person myself, more times than I care to admit. And I can tell you, it was easier to say “Ahh, bullshit,” and in hindsight, more self-serving than it was to contemplate what I’d just heard. It was almost a habit, and it had to be broken. I broke it, and almost instantly became a better person for it.

Subjects like this will not become the normal fare for the North Sound Breeze. I (and my large staff of writers, editors and photographers) am well aware that you get more of this on a daily basis than you need or want. This post happened because my waiting room experience rattled me a touch, and reminded me how valuable silence can be, and that when out there in the world, I must be more careful about which hill I’m willing to die on. It’s a beautiful, great-smelling rose bush out there. With thorns.

Steve Hulse