Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Recently I've had the privilege of witnessing a few really…
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Recently I've had the privilege of witnessing a few really heartwarming moments.
- On the BART. We've just stopped at a station. A black man gets up to leave. The white man who was sitting beside him shouts, "Sir, your jacket!" The black man realizes he's forgotten his coat and goes back to get it before he leaves the train.
- In the bookstore. A boy, about ten, evinces confusion about some line in a book about "blind, hairy-palmed werewolves." His mother explains to him, "People used to believe that if you masturbated, you'd go blind, or you'd grow hair on the palms of your hands. But obviously that isn't true, because almost everybody masturbates, and so then everybody would be walking around blind and with hair on their palms! Masturbation doesn't hurt you."
We as a society have come a long way, and I'm ever so glad to remember that.
