Layers

I've never experienced real tragedy until I hit adulthood. Sure there were moments of crisis while growing up. Family wars, bitter childhood and teen fights, death of people I love - but always logical death, taunting and jealousy both ways, etc. So much of what is hard about tragedy, my play on semantics, is that there's no present justification. As an adult, I can learn to deal with that and do. After tragedy, now I see crisis as a challenge, and I don't know what a crisis is anymore besides plain chaos.

Drinking a couple of beers, hanging out with friends in a low-key Baltimore neighborhood, and my roommate calls me. There are men outside the gate of our backyard, twelve of them. They've been there since she left at 9 for the bars and returned at midnight. Her deviance degree gives her a sense of logic and non-fear that I appreciate, since my teacihng this past year has also given me these senses informally. She can hack living on our street. But she knows better than to let our dog out to pee when these guys are out there. One, the dog is going to freak out, and she's new so we don't know everything about her behavior. Two, someone in that crowd may be scared of dogs. Three, she's home alone and is an attactive young woman. Four, their method of gambling is another way for gangs to trade/sell guns. Five, she calls me. Six, I go home gladly, because she shouldn't be dealing with chaos alone on a street where people don't know what to do with us.

By the time I got home she had already called the non-emergency number to inquire. They told her to take the dog to a park and not go in our backyard. We left with Jordan (dog), the cops came when we were gone, so they were gone. All of it anonymous. All of it without incident.

I think the reason that my roommate and I don't have any fear about where our house is located, and the exciting things that happen in our neighborhood, is because we are willing to learn about why Baltimore has transformed into the city it has becomed. We are interested in people and (hopefully) not generalizations. Nobody has crossed us and vice versa. We both have a little knowledge about juvenile deviance, but we know enough to know that there are more young people working their butts off to succeed than not.