I drank the Austin Kool Aid

Here's another repost for my fellow Austin, Tejas lovers (or those who might want to visit).

Keep Austin Kool, August 31, 2008

I saw something today that touched my heart. It also made me realize how much I've changed personally in the last three or four years. I've finally learned that just being happy is about the most important thing in the world. Coincidentally I've lived in Austin, Texas for over three years. Changes in Latitudes I guess. However, I never thought that I would find commonality in my pursuit of happiness with a homeless lady, a BMW, and a pack of smokes. Should of known, though, it's Austin.

So, here it goes.

I was sitting at a red and a homeless lady was walking toward me with a sign that said, "Lost Everything. Please Help." Austin has a relatively large homeless population. The self-proclaimed "Live Music Capital of the World" has a way of sucking people in from all over the country and then spitting them back on its streets when they fail to become the next Janis Joplin or Stevie Ray Vaughn. So, I was sitting there feeling bad for the lady and wishing that I had something besides pennies in the cup holder of my 7 year old Ford Escape with 167,000+ miles on it when I noticed an arm reaching out of the little black Beamer in front of me. A tan female arm with a nice watch and manicured nails. And then the coolest thing happened. The blond lady at the other end of the arm handed the homeless lady a pack of smokes. They exchanged a couple of words and then the homeless lady smiled and tucked the smokes in her pocket and kept on making her way down the row of cars. The lady in the Beamer rolled up the window and waited for the light to change. Neither of them felt the need to make too much small talk. For some reason the whole exchange gave me a sense of peace and a feeling that things were actually more right with the world than I'd thought 2 minutes before.

(And before you get up on that high horse keep on reading). . .

There was a time when I would have had the condescending thought that she shouldn't have given the homeless lady smokes. But in that moment I realized that the Beamer lady completely got it. It was like she knew exactly what would mean the most to that homeless lady in that particular moment. Yeah, maybe the homeless lady would have liked some cash but maybe the Beamer lady only had pennies in her cup holder too. Maybe she thought it was safer to give the lady smokes rather than cash. Who knows. Doesn't matter. It was just cool. Sitting there between two walls of limestone, hundreds of gorgeous homes, millions of Lance Armstrong wannabe cyclists, some Harley riding hippies, and the homeless, I realized that Austin is the coolest city in the U.S. No matter if your rockin', smokin', beggin', or just L-I-V-I-N, Austin loves you. Keep Austin Weird, Keep Austin Kool.