In my last post I talked about a vehicle I would see coming into the middle school parking lot every morning with a lot of stupid and marginally offensive bumper stickers. The point of them was that Trump Is My Daddy and I Hate Liberals. I fantasized about plowing into the back of the vehicle to take out the bumper stickers.
So...a few days later I had a few minutes before my afternoon route from the time I filled up my bus and when I had to get to the school for afternoon pickup. I stopped at the parking lot across from the gas station and was walking over to get a Dr Pepper, when who should pull up aside me but the Trump Woman and her horrible billboard? "Are you a bus driver? I wanted to stop and say thank you for all your hard work driving these kids. My father was a bus driver, and I know how hard it can be." And then she drove off.
I gotta confess, I was not expecting that. Over a year of fantasizing about plowing through the back of a car, and now the driver of that car that projects such hostility and rage speaks a word of kindness. Who would have thought that was coming?
I suppose the answer is the old cliche, that you can't judge a book by its cover. Of course, if the book has a cover of a bloody robot destroying a handful of newborn kittens, you're not going to expect it to be a love of story. How does somebody who intentionally promotes herself as a person of such rage then turn out to be a not-so-bad person of kindness?
Maybe it's a lesson that shows the importance of being consistent in our words and deeds. Because, for all I know, she might have driven off from me to go to a Trump rally that night or drive through the streets of our town looking for people of color to report to ICE. I still see that vehicle almost every day and though I know she had a moment of kindness, I still don't trust her. It only takes a moment to speak a kind word; it takes thought and consideration to put up that many terrible bumper stickers. She might well be a nice person at times...but her soul is likely still dark as night.
