Once again, I had a lighter topic picked out, but the "real" topic made itself clear today. A lot of people have asked me why I'm moving to Portland. On the surface of it, it may not seem to make much sense. But I had two incidents today juxtaposed, which explain everything. I think I'll just describe these two incidents, and then maybe comment a little bit.
First, this morning, while I was working at home, I got a call from a 503 area code (Portland). When I picked up, a polite man asked if I owned a yellow scooter. I said I did, and he introduced himself as a police officer. My scooter, he said, had been found pushed up into someone's yard. I'd left it outside in a neighborhood of St. John's. So it wasn't terribly surprising to me that someone had messed with it. The police office was super nice, and he - on my behalf - had asked the guy at the house closest to where it was found if he would keep it for me in his garage. The guy said yes, and now I have it in someone's garage, and a phone number and address. I may even eventually make a new friend or acquaintance. And my scooter is fine. I left that interaction feeling awesome.
Directly after that, I got on my bike to go to work. There's a hill on the way, where you can pick up a bit of speed. The lights are even synchronized specifically for a bike going 20 mph. As I passed a woman on a bicycle, she screamed at me that I was going too fast and scaring people. I pulled up short at a red light a block up the road and she proceeded to lecture me about my bike riding skills. I won't go into the details of what she said because it's not important, and I also happen to think she's wrong anyway, but the point is she took time out of her day to yell at a complete stranger. (Here's a hint: if you find yourself telling someone you don't know how wrong they are, it's quite likely you are not increasing the overall happiness of the universe). I left that incident feeling angry and hurt.
These two incidents really speak to me, especially back to back. In one, an incident which could have been a big deal was turned into not a big deal at all. In the other, the inverse happened, and a big deal was created out of essentially nothing.
I'd love to say these were isolated incidents. But they are not. There has been a clear pattern, in both cases. I have my own "pop psychology" theories as to why, but honestly the why is not nearly as important to me as the end result. And - no offense, San Francisco - this is why I need to move.