A Meeting of Truths.

I remember one time when I was walking around downtown El Paso waiting for my bus to come in, I was approached by a black man who was trying to talk to me. I hadn't realised that he was there until he roughly tapped my shoulder.

"Can you spare me a cigarette?"

Sure, that is not a problem.
Take two.

Then he started smiling and seemingly trying to start a conversation with me. (Yea, I talk to bums because I am one.) I emphasized that I was deaf and couldn't hear for shit.

"You read lips?"
yeah, sorta.

I started ranting, as usual, about "all these fucking hearing people who try to make us like them" and the trouble with the Greyhound staff when using sign language. "Us deaf fools are a minority, fool."

He looked at me with cocked eyebrow and twist in his neck as if his head were hanging off his shoulder.

"Boy, you don't know shit about being a minority."

He exhaled a cloud of smoke through his nose and sat down at his spot, which was a bus stop bench. He suddenly slouched and looked grim. He shook his head in a violent manner as if he were shaking bugs off of him.

"I've seen some pretty fucked up stuff, man. You a white man and you got no issues with people discriminating your ass for having colored skin. Minority my ass,..youse white, boy."

I take a long drag from my cigarette and look at him in the eyes. I seen what he seen but yeah,..different circumstances and different reasons. He stared back at me and wasn't sure what was going on in my head.

I asked him if he met a deaf person before and his reply was,
"No".

I began to explain to him the hows and whys of a certain discrimination, one that is often difficult for the hearing to see and because of that, they dismiss the issue. One that is clearly present in every new approach and encounter. One that is not based on color but of sound. And the majority of them are,...you guess it,...hearing. I am a minority.

He looked at me with a sincere face and he said he was sorry for what he said.
I told him it was "all good".

We hung out at that bench together for another hour before I had to get on my way to Los Angeles. I earned his respect and he earned mine, brothers. We talked a lot about how the world is actually full of good people and how the system seems to be corrupted by the bad. We ended on a good note. I told him the good always prevails. He nodded in profound agreement. I gave him another cigarette and a hug in closing.

You take care. I'm glad I met you. I know I done good, because there's one less ignorant fool walking on the planet. I'm out. V

Before I could walk away he gestured to me a "thank you" with a tip of his hat and he pounded on his heart several times then pointed to me. It was a powerful meeting of Truths. We shared.

Audism is real yet compassion is eternal.