A Lesson In Perspective

The park is the midway point on my morning walk. It was actually supposed to be a “morning run”, but most of the days it is no more than a stroll – as I slow down to admire the landscaping or flowers in people’s yards along the way. I had captured some amazing photos on this route – blue skies, bright colored flowers and sun peeking through varieties of Maple.

Today was a different kind of beauty. The thick fog that cloaked the trees in the park would be a wonderful backdrop for a selfie, I thought. I positioned myself such that I would get the trees in the background with enough light on my face. I was getting quite good at this selfie thing (for a guy my age, of course). I was engrossed in appreciating my face on the iPhone while framing the photo.

Me : 💭 Let me capture from a lower angle.. No point highlighting my bald spot. I am glad I shaved before the walk. I don’t want to look shabby in this selfie. I wonder if I should post it on Facebook or maybe just our family group on Whatsapp? How about Nextdoor? The neighborhood folks really liked my photos the last time I posted them. 💭

Being so absorbed I did not notice the lady with her dog who was directly in front of me about 20 feet or so away.

Lady : 💭 I wish Buddy (dog) would hurry up and do his thing. I should get back to breakfast and get the kids ready for the summer camp. It’s going to be a crazy day at work, with Jack being out and I’ll have to cover for him.. and .. wait!! What’s this creepy guy doing? Why is he recording me? Dammit! I was warned about such people. It’s too quiet here. There’s nobody else around. I should start carrying my pepper spray on these walks 💭

Me : 💭 Calm down… don’t worry about the dog. I know it’s coming at me but “if you ignore them they will go away” – is what I was told. After all these years of being married to Uma, looks like I might have picked up traces of her dog phobia! 💭

Lady : “Hey! hey! What are you doing?”

Me : 💭 Oh good… looks like she is going to stop the dog from attacking me! That’s really nice of her. I should be wrapping up my selfie masterpiece and get out of here!💭

The dog is now so close that it could lick my ankle.. (or take a bite of my juicy calf… it could go either way), so I stayed frozen. The lady walked up… hopefully to get the dog away from me, right?

Lady : “What are you doing? Why are you recording my dog?”

Me : “What? 😳 Oh no! I was just taking a selfie. See… here’s the one I just took”

She quickly realized her mistake and was visibly embarrassed and profusely apologetic. I mumbled “It’s Ok. Don’t worry about it”. As she walked away, she shook her head and said “This is funny… This could be written up as comedy.”

I am a big fan of the “put yourself in the other person’s shoes” philosophy. There is absolutely no reason for the lady to apologize. Think about it – What if I was actually a creep who is out on the prowl with a camera and capturing women walking around for whatever creepy reason. There was no possible way for her to know that I was indulging in some harmless self-admiration for the sake of social media. Both of our viewpoints are valid and harmless. You can see how something like this could spiral into an incident – if either (or both) of us was hot headed and confrontational.

Like she said… It could easily be the start of a sitcom scene or even a clever “Candid Camera” or “Just for Laughs” gag. 😀

On my way back, I captured this doe (a deer, a female deer 🎵), who posed fearlessly with quizzing looks.