The Wire

Paul and I both loved the television show, The Wire. We both agree that it was one of the best television shows of all time. Seriously, all time. Good plot. Great characters. Who didn't love Stringer Bell? I could go on. Anyway, the plot centers around a group of Baltimore police officers. Several seasons are devoted to a ring of drug dealers and their constant efforts to foil the police and sell ever increasing amounts of drugs to the poor of Baltimore.

Well this evening, on the way home from pilates class (it sounds like The Wire already, right?), I was driving through a slightly questionable neighborhood near downtown. There was a lady standing in the middle of an intersection. Just standing there. She didn't seem to be on her way anywhere and she didn't seem concerned about the fact that she was standing in the middle of the intersection. She just chilled for a bit and then started smoking a cigarette. Clearly she had been buying someone's product.

What looked like her drug dealer was approaching when I decided to use the old front wheel drive sleigh to get the heck out of Dodge. I bring this up not because this was such an amazing event or because I am so naive as to believe that this little drama is not played out in infinite variety across the country every day. Rather, I bring it up to illustrate how different my reality is from the reality of this woman. My days are filling with work (for which I am luck enough to find both enjoyable and challenging), family, friends, pilates, running, reading, hanging out with the dogs, the constant quest to return the house to its pre-fire state, and the like. (As further example of the good things in my life, at one time I would have used "etc." rather than "the like." But Charles Meeker was kind enough to show me the error of my ways.) I can only imagine that this woman is not lucky enough to have such a list of things that fill her life.

But life is what you make of it. So best of luck to us both.