Annoyable Seaweed

Annoy:  To disturb or irritate, especially by continued or repeated acts; to bother with unpleasant deeds.

As I exited my Starbucks today, full of over-priced specialty coffee, I found myself face-to-face with a scruffy guy holding a cardboard sign: "Backpack and Sleeping Bag Stolen - Anything Helps."  I gave him a buck, wished him good luck.  I don't doubt his story.  I've run into enough people in The Fellowship with similar stories.  It can be tough out there - crime falls disproportionately hard on those who can least afford it.  And frankly, I don't care anymore if I'm getting scammed out of a buck - I don't think it happens very often and guys drinking $3 lattes can afford the odd scamming.

I certainly bore no ill will to the blameless folks who annoyed me yesterday.  Trust me, I've been plenty annoyed plenty of times by well-dressed old-timers droning on and on sanctimoniously about how humble they are while managing to work in how long they've been sober, where they live, and what kind of job they have.  I can work up a good, strong annoyance towards just about anyone when I'm In The Mood.  I'd rather hang around people who don't care what I think about them than with people who are trying to influence how I think about them.

I'm constantly reminded how big the little things can be.  There's a young Hispanic woman who works as a cleaner at my pool.  SuperK has spent some time getting to know her and I don't think that's common at the club.  I think most people look right through her.  The other day this woman asked SuperK for a job reference.  My wife isn't going to get a medal for this but she should - that's service in action.  Today I swam alone and the young gal asked after SuperK.  I trotted out my terrible Spanish and I could see that it was appreciated.  I try to remember to concentrate on these little things because they're important and when I ignore them I put my own spiritual well-being at peril.