People Less Selfish Than Me

What passes for conversation between two teenagers on the streetcar:

So Sheri Sherbin wanted to fight Katie because Katie kind of called her a whore so Sheri said meet me after school and I will kick your ass and Katie was so scared and she didn’t meet Sheri and Sheri’s friends wanted to go find her but Sheri said just let it go oh did I tell you that there were two boys fighting during lunch and Katie was screaming that they shouldn’t fight and then one boy punched another and Katie said OH NO HE’S BLEEDING and was dancing around and I said Katie you can’t do that you’re just encouraging them. [draws breath] Katie was there that Friday night when I totally forgot to call my mom and tell her where I was and it was one in the morning and my mom was calling everybody in town and asking where is my daughter and nobody knew and so then she finally called Katie’s house but everyone but me was asleep and I heard the phone and I had to go looking everywhere for it and it just kept ringing and finally I answered it and my mom was all oh my god I was so scared where were you and I was like mom it is ONE in the MORNING you can’t CALL people this late and so I said I was spending the night at Katie’s and hung up and jesus that was so fucking embarrassing I couldn’t believe she would do something like that.

Yesterday, on the bus…

Man Oh, that’s a great shirt!

Sage Thanks! I got it at this great store at the corner of Queen and College.

Man’s Friend But -

Man Yeah? Do you get there by subway, or…?

Man’s Friend It would -

Sage There’s all that construction on College right now, so I’m not sure if…

Man Which side is it on?

Sage It’s on…you know what? I think I wrote down the address.

Man Oh, excellent.

Sage, looking in notebook Erm. It’s on Bathurst, actually. Bathurst and College. Sorry about that. So just take the Bathurst streetcar down to College.

Man Cool. I’ll have to give it a try. [turns to friend] What were you trying to say?

Man’s Friend, rolls eyes Queen and College are parallel streets. There is no possibility of an intersection.

About a month ago we arrived at our favorite park, only to find signs everywhere reading, “We went broke!” and “Attend Friday’s meeting with your fundraising ideas.”

I felt really sad. I felt like my Pollyanna approach to Toronto was about to get a few dents in it, that a park as fantastic as that one couldn’t really function on such a high level, and that the lack of funds would lead to a steady decline until it had turned into just another place with an old playground.

Paul said, “I have a fundraising idea! I’m going to go to the meeting and give them my allowance.”

“What a fantastic idea,” I said, “I think you should do exactly that.”

Unfortunately we weren’t able to attend the meeting, but Paul’s immediate response made me think hard about the four hundred dollars that I’d saved up for a new camera, and how much that money would help. I’d like to say here that I ran home and gathered up the money I’d saved and gave it to the park, but I didn’t. Thinking, in a self-justifying sort of way, that the park was going to fall apart anyway, I kept on adding money to my cache until I had enough to buy my new camera and avoided the subject of the park.

Except, you know what? Less selfish people than me donated to the park. Like crazy. I mean, grandparents who don’t even live in Toronto sent money. Staff members rode out the pay freeze. They did! That’s how fantastic the park is! And by September first, they’d made over four thousand dollars.

The park is back to its old self, except with an extra bounce in its step. Because everyone who loves the park knows that no matter what, they’ll band together to save it from any troubles that might come along.

Except, you know, me.