a minute in the life

as we were driving back from the concert, stranded at a red light in midnight athens traffic, an old man on a wheelchair missing a leg (or two, i'm not sure and how sad is that?) approached the car. i keep some change in the car for such occasions but i have to be honest, i rarely give it out. this time i did. the man took it and smiled and didn't look to see how much it was. the conversation went like this:

spoiled young man: here you go
guy in wheelchair: how are you guys doing tonight? are you fucking awesome? (hard to translate gamisteroi in english)
sym: we're ok
giw: just ok?
sym: we're all right
giw: you better be better than that. you're young, you should be fucking great
sym: you're right, we should be
giw: that's better. go be fucking great.

we honked and waved and drove away. there were no signs of bitterness or envy in his voice. he was giving us, courage. if i was stranded in a wheelchair missing my legs and begging (though he wasn't begging) for money, i would be bitter and pissed off, especially at the spoiled young men who feel just ok despite having it all. it's a sad and beautiful world.