That one lady...

Sometimes, I just can’t understand what is going through peoples minds. I like to think that people are basically good, and that we all operate on more or less the save wave-length, but then something happens to make me wonder. Someone will do something to utterly alien to my way of thinking (yes, that’s more than a little egocentric) that I really wonder what the hell is going through their minds.

Take for instance yesterday. We were at the children’s expo at the Overture center. We are down in the little stage area on the first floor about to watch a teacher of my daughters sing songs about art. The place is crawling with kids, the ration is at least 4 kids to every adult. My wife and I tell our daughter to go find a seat, and we stand at the back of the room along the wall. Partly because we don’t want to take a seat that a kid could use, partly because our daughter doesn’t need someone right next to her anymore, but mostly because we weren’t really anticipating the show, and wanted to be as far from the noise as possible.

So here’s our view of the room



Now see that lady sitting in the first row of chairs, farthest to the right? And see that laminated handicap sign lying on the ground? Let me tell you how those pieces of the picture ended up where they are.

The two handicap signs were on the two chairs on the farthest right. The Lady comes in with her two kids, and without shame, without pausing, moves the two signs to one seat. Thus opening two seats for her kids. The rest of the row was full. So she stood off to the side. Before the show started, the kids were getting antsy, and one of her kids started squirming around, and finally knocked the signs off the seat altogether.

Again, without pausing, without even looking around to see if anyone would notice, she just sat down in the now “un-handicapped” seat.

What the hell? I mean seriously, what is going through a persons mind at that point? On some level she must be justifying it.

Does she think “oh, handicap people only need one seat. And I’ve got two kids, so we’ll just use one of the seats, and I’ll stand over here,” and then when her kid moves the sign “oh, I guess that isn’t reserved for the handicap, I must have been mistaken earlier. That chair is obviously open for anyone, and conveniently near my children. I shouldn’t let it go to waste”

Honestly, if you are reading this, and you think you know why she did what she did (beyond the obvious “she wanted to sit there.”) please tell me.