I have a need to write about an experience that I had this morning that made me feel very awkward. It’s a bit sensitive, so please bear with me.
Unless something stops me, like rain, I always go for my morning walk, leaving the house at around 0550. I usually follow the same route. That takes me along Forton Road, down Clarence Road and on to the High Street down to the Ferry and on from there.
As I was approaching the ferry this morning, I was approached by a lady. Normally people approach me to ask me what I am doing. I love that and am more than happy to explain why I am carrying a tripod with a handheld anemometer and my phone mounted on it, talking what looks like myself – actually, it’s to my radio. I accept, I look and sound odd (“2E1PHW, this is 2E0WGK, good morning everybody” – say it out loud, it sounds odd).
Anyhow, this lady told me that I worried her, that she had been afraid of being assaulted but when she heard me talking, she felt better and knew that I wasn’t a threat. I don’t ever want anyone to think of me as threatening. It distresses me that someone may. Unless they know me, no one can know. In some peoples perceptions, this is the price of being a man, to be thought of as a potential threat. It is horrible.
I really didn’t know what to say to her. Why did she approach me like that? Does she view every man as a threat until she is satisfied that we are not?
I have to say, I thought it sad and strange.
Bills Posts 