The Studio

Something rather out of the ordinary happened to me tonight, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

I was attending a friend's apartment warming tonight at an apartment complex on Bernardo street in Sunnyvale. Unfortunately, this apartment complex has minimal visitor parking, so I had to park on the street -- not too far away though, couldn't have been farther than 20 yards away from the front gate of the apartment complex.

When I left the party, it was about 10:00, and of course dark outside, but since my car was so close, I thought nothing of walking to my car alone. As I was walking to my car, another car pulled up along side of me and rolled down its window. At first I thought the person was going to ask me for directions, but instead, and to my surprise, the man in the car asked if I needed a ride.

I politely declined the ride, of course, explaining that I had a car. The next move also threw me for a loop, the car driver drove slowly alongside of me until he saw me click my car lights on. He then bid me goodnight and drove off.

Naturally I was alarmed by the whole encounter, but I also thought that it could very well have been that the driver of the car was concerned for my safety.

On my drive home, I wondered about situations where kindness could go too far, or perhaps come at an unwelcome time, that could contort the act into something creepy. In our increasingly cynical world, how many randomly kind strangers are misunderstood? How do we tell the difference between the times when we should be fearful or pleasantly surprised?

I personally like to believe in the goodness of people, but does that make me naive? When will that propensity to believe in people cloud my judgement? On the flip side, I promised myself that I would never give up my optimism, nor would I live in fear, or be paranoid. (that's how my mom is about my safety...she's in high state of alarm everytime I'm away from her.) I believe that you should be careful as you go through life, not throw yourself in harm's way, but to some degree, you have to have a little faith in the life, and in people. You have to have faith that you'll be ok to go about in this world, pursuing your happiness. So, that's my hope for the future...to never lose faith...

I need a sign to let me know you're here All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere I need to know that things are gonna look up Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup When there is no place safe and no safe place to put my head When you can feel the world shake from the words that I said And I'm calling all angels And I'm calling all you angels And I won't give up if you don't give up I won't give up if you don't give up I won't give up if you don't give up I won't give up if you don't give up I need a sign to let me know you're here Cause my tv set just keeps it all from being clear I want a reason for the way things have to be I need a hand to help build up some kind of hope inside of me And I'm calling all angels And I'm calling all you angels When children have to play inside so they don't disappear While private eyes solve marriage lies cause we dont talk for years And football teams are kissing queens and losing sight of having dreams In a world where all we want is only what we want untill it's ours And I'm calling all angels And I'm calling all you angels And I'm calling all angels (I won't give up if you don't give up)