Bending reality

I’m kinda used to move only by car, back in high school I did use to move from school to home using public transport but it wasn’t a huge distance. I have obviously used the subway from time to time because of my work, plans with friends or so but I’m not that used to ride the subway or public transport. A couple of weeks ago, me and my friend went to the Plaza de la Constitución since we had being researching some merchandise since we are looking for suppliers in order to star our own business.

Me and my friend took a “pesero” to General Anaya, next we took the subway all the way to the Zocalo. As always peddlers get up and down the subway. At Portales a dude with a backpack dressed kinda like a “cholo” got on our wagon, I didn’t worry too much about his presence just got aware of everything and everyone around me. Two stations later when the subway started to advance the “cholo” started to walk from one side of the wagon to the center of it and then he started saying with a funny accent.

– Good afternoon, -Another peddler, I thought for myself and kept messing around with my friend – I don’t want you to think wrongly about our people, I am Honduran and today we are a group of 7 people here.

When he said the last part some people started looking at him, next he shut up out of nowhere when the subway stopped on the next station, Villa de Cortez, I noticed people getting on the wagon he almost ran down, two cops get on and stayed by the door. The Honduran disappeared between the people and the doors got closed.

-What happened? –Asked my friend. I just shrug and went back to my business trying to talk with my friend but she interrupted me almost immediately.

-Did you noticed why the dude got down? – She said while pointing the policemen by the door with her chin. – I looked around and one of the officers looked  back at me, I looked all the people around and some looked relieved, other indifferent. An elder man in front of me wrinkle his face and pressed his eyes with his hand. Almost it seemed to me like he was holding on to not cry.

Muggings are pretty common on certain zones of the city, as all over the world, I know people who had been assaulted until 4 times and have had pretty bad experiences. But on the other hand I also know people like my dad. He was a reporter for a local television network for more than 20 years and this job made him went to the most dangerous places in the city in the middle of the nigth and hold conversations with junkies, killers and a bunch of crazy people. He never was assaulted his whole life.

Me and my friend had to go to  some of the most dangerous places in the city, places like La Merced, Tepito and so. That day and since that first experience I noticed her attitude and the way she took the situation.

-In this zone –She told me with an extremely serious and soft tone while we were walking through La Merced – there’s a lot of Trata.

Trata – Human trafficking. Prostitution black market where pimps who kidnaped a woman  force her to become a prostitute through threats for her life or her family if she doesn’t do it.

I noticed she didn’t want to talk loud since people could notice we are from a “better zone” of the city, also I noticed her reality on the subway was “we were about to get mugged”. There’s something I have been trying to work at on situations like this. For example, in the traffic jam, a car overtake you in a dangerous way and you get mad, (s)he might be having an urgency, (s)he might got informed a loved one had been hospitalized. As simple as this is how you can bend reality almost literally.

I am not that naive, but I know when “to bend” reality is going to be beneficial to me, the situation and most important my perception and attitude towards situations and people. To me reality at the moment was that the dude on the subway might was any another peddler who got scared for being put on jail for the day for selling stuff without permission or getting a fine.

This is one simple way I have been experiencing with lately, It’s not the only one, but I hope it’d  migth help you to deal with situations an people. Let me know what you do to deal with unspected situations in the comments section or on my social networks.

“Ever try. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.”  Samuel Beckett