Still Alive!

Hello Friends,

An incident took place the day before yesterday, when I was filling in a teaching gig for a colleague at one of  San Francisco Schools. 

After I taught my class, I walked out of the building in my way to the Bart, since I didn't want to drive all the way to San Francisco that day. Reaching the second block, I noticed that special gigantic skyscraper. Sometimes I had that feeling of certain admiration to special kinds of architect.

I decided to take a photo for that extremely high building, which for me looked like someone was bending down at you to ask you if you were in need of help. I grabbed my cellphone and I took a shot then I turned the lens towards me and took another shot for myself on that spot of the street.

In a flash of a moment, where there was a bus passenger shelter, that sort of a cabin with a bench style, there came out that African American woman who was coming at me, waving her hands as if rapping a song, and saying: "Hey bitch! Why are taking my picture, bitch?"

My first natural reaction was: "Don't call me bitch." She was not hearing what I said. She continued saying: "Why are you taking my picture, bitch? I'm gonna beat your ass". She was not a big build-up or muscles but I was not going to fight with her. In my mind I thought why she was doing that, instead of thinking how to defend myself.

I answered again: "I did not take your picture, and don't call me a bitch." 

She said: "Show me your phone, bitch. I have to see it with my own eyes."

I showed her my phone scrolling through the photos, just for the sake of getting rid of that wave of anger and to correct the image she had in her mind that I was taking her picture. That didn't help. 😖Still

She didn't stop. She continued: "Don't play with me, b., move it the other way around" which I

did while I was still taking it easy. At that moment, I thought that we were done, and she would go away, but contrary to my thinking, she was about to start something else, and she approached me, putting two fingers with her left hand to my right shoulder, pushing it a little bit, and repeating: "I'll beat......"

Only at that specific moment, I ran out of patience and I was provoked. I don't know where that voice came from, because it was not my voice, it was a voice that came up from very deep guts inside of me yelling in a roaring tone: "I   t o l d  y o u that I did not take your picture."

She stepped back out of startle or surprise (I did't care to know), I guess. I walked away and did not turn around or looked behind. I heard her voice saying some other words but I didn't really care about anything she was saying. My heart was pounding. My thinking was all focused on how far that would go and how it would end.

In my purse I had that Robocopp grenade, a security device, but I didn't want to reach out to it inside my purse lest she would think I was pulling a knife or a weapon which might  make her even more violent.

I'm not sure if that was a good handling or not, but all I know is that I'm still alive.

Thank you for being with us today. Until we chat some more, be careful when you walk the streets of San Francisco, you never know what to expect any more. Leave your comments and share with us your experiences, and check on our previous posts, you'd find them inspiring!

With our love. 😉