Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The difference between a cement plant and a prison


I took my car to a new mechanic last week. I have had several bad experiences trying to maneuver through the male dominated world of the auto shop. Being a woman, with some automotive life experience, I expect to be ripped off or dismissed by the knowing, macho types that car culture often attracts. As I stood waiting in the steamy, crowded office, papered in Lamborghini (or as Otis “Half-Eaten” calls them, Lambos) posters the main mechanic talked with some old guy with like the worst B.O, ever. When he left, I started telling the mechanic about my car issues. He was a big, hulking guy. He looked Middle Eastern in the way that my dad did, which is to say, probably not Middle Eastern, but from somewhere close by. He was wearing dirty coveralls (natch) and was probably around fifty. He listened and handed me the paperwork to fill out.

He says to me as I’m doing this,” That old man, he comes here a lot. He smells so bad. His car is so filled with garbage that it’s hard for us to work on it. Poor, poor man, I think he’s very depressed. Both his sons died of AIDS. It’s very sad.”

That is one monologue that I did not expect. And the caring manner in which he related it, it was heartfelt and intimate, two things I also didn’t expect to encounter at the auto shop.

The universe is still expanding and exploding which according to Big Sur and I guess science and stuff, causes the world to be entropic, often negative, and chaotic. But, lately I have been surprised by open, generous, caring people with expansive energies and although the world still contains all those explosive characteristics, I’m experiencing a lot of the other stuff too.

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