So, I have this blackboard in front of my store. I write on it every day. It’s not about specials or sales or anything of that kind of stuff. I basically write anything that comes into my head when the chalk is my hand. It’s usually pretty off-the-wall, but I seem to have developed a following — lots of folks look forward to my daily ramblings. Reactions range from laughter to anger to corrections of my grammar or spelling to who-knows- what.
A who-knows-what reaction happened Wednesday. Here’s what I wrote:
I guess it must be Christmas. They’re lighting the tree at Rockefeller Center tonight. Maybe I’ll go this year. On second thought, maybe I’ll just commit suicide instead.
Well, the neighborhood gang all got it, and laughed and gave me a big thumbs up as they passed by. But then an earnest young women came through the door and asked to speak to the person who was contemplating suicide. She really looked concerned. ”Are you from New York?” I asked. ”Do you know what it’s like at Rock Center during the tree lighting ceremony? She had no idea, but I explained it to her and she left, relieved that she didn’t have to save me from dying at my own hand.
When my guardian angel was gone, a stunned customer asked if this kind of thing happened often when I write on my board. “You have no idea who’s out there, but that’s what makes my daily board such a gas,” I told her. But come to think of it, do you think all those people who gave me a thumbs up were encouraging me to off myself? You never know.
