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Spare the Time, Stranger?

Wednesday April 5, 2023

Today I was out and semi-about and needed to know the time.

Being the non-owner of a phone in a harsh society where public clocks are next to nonexistent, the task seemed tantamount to impossibility. That is, unless I did the implausible and mustered myself to ask a stranger.

I tend to try my best to improve myself in myriad manners, one of which being in my social aptitude. Thus, I felt it most optimal to carry out the mildly formidable action of asking two girls who were walking nearby if they had the time. And statistically, they would have the time, for statistically, they will own at least one mobile phone between them.

I carried out the action, albeit with some slightly odd wording and pausing due to my speech impediment. Despite that, they seemed happy enough to supply me the time, and were soon on their way, after responding to my "thank you" with a "no problem."

Such interactions can be difficult to subject oneself to if one's self-esteem or worldview imagines dastardly depictions of said world's inhabitants. In my case, there was the fact that these two girls were most likely students of the high school they were walking from. In the first place I half-jokingly proffer that to trust in teenagers is a grave mistake, (It takes one to know one.) and in the second place aforementioned high school does not have my highest regards. I very well could have forgone the endeavour on these grounds, in order avoid the possibility of interaction with bad people.

But as today's experience showed me, the world isn't filled with bad people, at least not to the brim. The world is filled with good people who find no problem in helping a stranger out. That, or it's filled with bad people after all who simply don't mind providing the time.