Smiles and creepers

Do you ever stop and think about how a little human contact can change your day?  I was walking to work yesterday and some guy stopped me to ask for directions to the Conservatory of Music.  And I felt really nice being able to help someone (not to mention super cool for actually knowing my way around San Francisco well enough to tell him.  It's like I'm a local!)  He smiled and said thank you.  He was clean and soft spoken and I imagine he was some type of musician.  And I thought, yes, that's who I am.  I am Alex, the kind of person who helps young artists. 

On the same subject though, a little human contact can also really ruin your day.  Like the crazy homeless guy who started swearing at me about Jesus Christ because I smiled at him.  That was upsetting.  Or the creeper on BART the other day who was resting his arm on my hip.  Imagine waking up from a nap to find some older gentleman resting his arm on your person.  I tried to scoot away but he kept his arm firmly pressed against me.  That was one of those human interactions that really made me wonder about people. 

My point was actually going to be that you should smile and reach out to your fellow man, but now that I've remembered those last two incidents, I think maybe I should just say to be careful out there.  I mean it was nice that the musician turned out to not be crazy, but he could have asked me for money instead of directions and then it would have been just another morning in San Francisco. 

But no, really, I believe in kindness.  But not in creepy old guys.  I just don't believe in them.  Have a good night folks.