I don't regret many things about my life.
However, there are a few times where I think about a situation where something happened and I wonder..."what if I would have done that differently?"
So as I write my first post to this blog, thanks friends for inviting me to this conversation, I want to ask all of you: What would you have done in this situation?
I will set the scene....
A young handsome man, sometimes confused as gay but really happily married, enters the crowded Chicago Brown Line train headed south towards the Loop. Excited to see his cousins who recently arrived for the weekend to run the Chicago Marathon, the man steps onto the train with confidence, showing his fellow passengers that he knows the city. The young man grabs hold of the vertical handlebar with his left hand and casually leans up against the plexiglass barrier. From across the aisle-standing directly in front of the young man, a strange yet non threatening middle-aged man catches eye contact with the young man as he looks up from his iPod. The young man acknowledges him with a slight head nod realizing two strangers have just made eye contact. As the train moves south past the Armitage Brown Line stop, the wheels beneath the young man's feet shake his body and he readjusts to calibrate his balance.
At this moment of recalibration and comfort shifting, the young man looks down at his iPod in his right hand while his left still grips the handlebar. Looking for the perfect song for a beautiful Chicago fall day the young man experiences a strange occurrence. The left hand that is currently grasping the handlebar for steadiness is now not alone. A sweaty, clammy, larger hand is now engulfing the young man's hand.
Stirred by this surprising occurrence the young man looks up in an instance from his iPod and realizes the same middle-aged man that he recently acknowledge with a head nod is now standing right beside him with the sweaty hand over the top of his. Frighten by this event, the young man quickly readjusts his entire body so that his back is now towards the strange middle-aged man without looking up at the facial expression.
Knowing that the train is coming upon the Brown Line station at Chicago and Franklin, the young man quietly stands still waiting for the train to stop and an opportunity to dodge the strange man and fall into anonymity among the crowd.
As the train pulls to an stop, feeling as it is in slow motion, the young man feels the awkwardness of the strange man still standing behind him. As the doors to the rail car open in the sliding motion the body heat from the strange man becomes existent to the young man. Knowing something is about to be exchanged the young man's head slightly turns to his left, eyes moving in the same direction. Right as the young man's eyes and head get set into position to say the first words of "Do you need something," the strange middle-aged man moves his head and mouth 2 inches in front of the young man's left cheek and blows a puff of air, as if he is blowing out 40 birthday candles from atop his cake while non-verbally saying "I would like to do bad things to you."
Completely surprised and infuriate by this action, the young man feels a rush of rage and embarrassment. Without any thought of reacting the strange, now creepy, middle aged ass-wipe moves off the train and onto the platform - and out of the young man's life forever. The sliding doors close and the young man is left on the train with his iPod, a feeling of rage and a hot nasty smell of breath across his face.
And scene...
As I think back on this situation I always wonder...what would have happened if I would have pushed him or even punched him? I was completely caught off guard in that situation as it was one of the strangest moments on the CTA.
My question to you...what would you have done if someone blew a puff of love into your face?
