Odd. Very Odd Indeed...

What is it with people being so paranoid in this city?

I remember that before I moved out of Wyoming, Minnesota, I'd come to Nesting Grounds and the ladies working here would let their kids roam the store talking to its caffeinated customers like they were brothers and sisters.

About... I guess it'd be 8 months ago... the assistant manager of this place was celebrating her 40th birthday. They had a cake for her and were smoking cigarettes in the back room (Which is probably what any 40th birthday is like). Her 8 year old son came up to me holding a pack of tattered old cards and politely asked to play Go Fish with me. After taking a sip of my coffee, I obliged and we had fun (Despite the fact that the deck was missing a half dozen cards). She probably enjoyed having the kid out of her hair too while she enjoyed her brief minutes of celebrating her birth.

Today, however, a young couple was talking to their insurance agent here. They had a toddler who managed to stumble over to my table, where I was doing some light reading on my computer. I had only a moment to look over and smile at him before his dad ran up and snatched him away, sneering at me in his periphery.

From this, I can only conclude one of two things: I either look like a creeper child abductor, or people have become ridiculously scared of other people.

Am I taking this just a bit too personally? Maybe. And hey, I've never had a kid of my own, so I've got next to no parenting experience (Other than baby sitting and playing with my ex Kellie's two year old).

But are we not all human here? The people in this town seem to long for peace of mind, and when you get a big group of people seeking that, you either get paranoia or tension, it seems. Which gets back to the utopian theories of how the perfect world can't exist in reality.

So I can just say that I'll treat everything and everybody with respect. We all do stem from the same essence and have no reason to cause seperation. Your joys can be of mine, and your pains too. There's no reason not to be friendly, so there you have it.

Just remind me not to be bitter. Coffee tends to do that to you.