Sunday
An atypical day… and a very cool one. We (, , and I) headed to Park City to meet some friends (including ) at the Park City Arts Festival.
The outing started with an attempt to find parking relatively near the area where we usually park on P.C. excursions. No such luck. We had to park at Deer Valley (a couple of miles away) and take a shuttle bus into town. No biggie. We ate at The Eating Establishment. It was a nice restaurant and the food was good.
(rant)
About halfway through lunch, the elderly couple at the table next to us prepared to leave. The woman stood; her husband attempted to do so… but was unsuccessful. The gentleman shifted a little in his seat, braced his back against the wall and attempted again. He was able to get part of the way up, but couldn’t quite stand. His wife came over to help him. She didn’t have the strength and/or leverage to help him. I went over, asked if I could help and offered my hand. He took it and pulled himself up. I held on to his arm for a moment while he got his balance and then returned to my chair.
The irritating factor was that no one else seemed willing to help the man. The restaurant was nearly full. I noticed that other people were watching the man… and seemed very nonchalant about “his problem.” It was a simple thing to help the man to his feet. I waited a few moments before stepping in because:
- I didn’t want to seem as though I was intruding
- I didn’t want to infringe on the gentleman’s sense of pride
- I wanted to see if the wife would be successful in helping him.
Simple things. But there was a sense of personal honor. No, there were two matters of honor: The man’s and my own – no one enjoys feeling helpless or unable to do things for him-/herself; and I couldn’t stand by and watch as the couple was in what had to be an uncomfortable situation.
So, I acted. No one else – staff or customer – seemed willing to put themselves out to help someone who was obviously in need of aid. It seems odd to have to put it that way: “…put themselves out,” but that’s pretty much how it came off. No one was willing to take a few seconds to do a small measure of human decency and kindness. *sigh* often says that she has little to no hope for the fate of humanity. Today, I could understand why.
(/rant)
After lunch, we wandered up and down Main Street and saw MANY artists and their creations. It was great. I wished that I had lots of surplus money because I saw far more things that I wanted than I could afford. I did treat myself to a couple of prints that I liked. I did get many artists’ business cards and sign up for mailing lists¹. Hopefully, this way I will be able to at least keep an eye open for items that I’d like to purchase at a later date.
Leaving Park City, we headed back to SLC and stopped at Borders. We were joined by Robert and Mike. The five of us decided to have dinner at Cafè Trang. I’d never been there before, but I had heard good things about it. The restaurant lived up to its reputation.
After dinner, , , and I came back to the apartment. We sat and talked… and then watched the rebroadcast of Real Time with Bill Maher.
And that’s the day in a nutshell.
Namaste.
– VS – 
– VS – 
– VS – 
