So yesterday, I was at the Saturday Market in Portland for a little bit and I was chatting with this dwarf guy (I don’t know if he was a real midget or not, he was like smaller than that even). He was there playing the violin to get donations. I asked him if I could leave my Open2Chat bracelets by his money collection thing so people would be able to take something with them for donating money.
I was totally in the middle of a conversation with him and this woman came up, stuck her phone almost between us (symbolizing to break our conversation apart) and said to the little guy in a VERY aggressive tone “PLAY!” (so she could film him.)
The little guy gave me a look like ‘wow’ with an eye roll and he started playing for her while she stood back and filmed. Shortly (like seconds later), a drunk guy behind him started chiming in telling him how great he was which prompted the little guy to turn around and sorta play toward him. The camera phone woman flipped her long wavy hair back and stomped around so she could film the little guy straight on again. I stood there and watched from a short distance until the woman walked away.
I wanted to see if she would leave a sizable donation or any at all. As I suspected, she gave nothing, not even a thank you or a simple smile. I walked up to her and with a smile on MY face, I asked her “excuse me.. I’m just curious about something… you just ORDERED that little guy to PLAY and then you didn’t even leave a donation? I just find that really odd.” She snapped that she had left a donation earlier (which was not true since he just started playing) and then continued ‘maybe you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’. I responded (again, still smiling), “I’m actually not at all.. I’m just curious about your ACTIONS and how you thought it was ok to bark ‘PLAY’ at that guy, completely interrupting our conversation so you could film him and then walk off without even a gesture of gratitude.” She merely responded with ‘I don’t think I was that aggressive and YOU have a nice day.’ and she swished her hair and walked off.
I was amazed.
What was even more amazing, is I did almost that very same thing not two hours later (sorta). I was in a public bathroom waiting in line to get to a toilet and I heard the faint sound of someone singing. It was beautiful. I snapped (yes, I actually did) “Is someone singing?” An Indian woman who was adjusting her long layered dress, said “I am.” Then I actually snapped (yes, I couldn’t believe I did that).. “SING LOUDER! ITS BEAUTIFUL”. And she did.. it was like angels singing.
I felt super bad for snapping my request, but at least I wasn’t shooting video of her, nor was she there for donations… She was just singing in the restroom.
And yes, I did express enormous gratitude with thank yous and a huge smile.
