Karmic comeuppance

Every now and then life gives us little reminders of the need to be kind. I received such a reminder the other day.

Waiting in line for my morning bus, I was one of several people who bore witness to a little scene when another bus pulled up and a young homeless woman trying to board lost her jeans. I don’t mean they slipped a little. I mean Miss Commando mooned us for fair.

The view was so unexpected that not one of us moved as this person tried frantically to find her bus pass while balancing her worldly belongings and of course, trying to return her apparel to a more appropriate alignment. We just stood there, trying to look anywhere but. (Sorry, couldn’t help it.)

She struggled onto the coach, found a seat, glared at us as the bus pulled away and just then, the woman in line next to me, one of the regulars snorted and the whole line dissolved in guffaws.

We should have been more charitable. At least, not laughed. I felt bad for a moment and then forgot about it as I immersed myself in Paradise.

I had been at work about fifteen minutes and was eating my muffin when I realized something was amiss with mine own apparel. Some places should just not feel breezes. And as you’ve probably surmised, it turned out I had split my pants in a most impressive fashion. And I could not reconstruct when the malfunction had occurred.

I’d made promises I needed to keep, so there was nothing for it but to remain at my desk and get the work done and just hope I didn’t get called into a meeting (I wasn’t). Besides, this has happened to me before – the cost of stuffing my girth into the same three pairs of pants day after week.

When it was time to go home, I grabbed a bright red hoodie I happened to have at work and tied it around my waist, put on my coat and headed for the bus.

Payback stuck in the form of one of the regular street folk who laughed loudly, tapped me on the shoulder and proclaimed to the world, “Mister, you stylin’!” She was joined by maybe a half dozen others in celebrating my fashion sense with loud brays.

I looked straight ahead and kept walking.

And the score from Third and Pine: Karma – 1; My dignity – 0