Ron Osterberg
Jennifer, owner of a dress shop in Black Rock, took a liking to Holly and walked her over to meet the owner of the nail salon next door. Outside, Holly took a closer look at the salon’s front and froze, her smile vanished and she set her feet apart as if getting ready punch it out with an unseen opponent. Leaning toward me, she said grimly, “That’s the place. I’m sure it is. I don’t want to go in there. I just don’t.”
Seeing Jennifer’s bafflement, Holly explained her sudden mood shift. About a year earlier she went to that same nail solon in mid afternoon and found it locked. Looking through the window, Holly saw a woman emerge from behind a barrier and unlock the door. The woman explained that she didn’t want a black clientele and kept the door locked as a way of selecting her customers. Holly waited about one millisecond, turned on her heel and walked out fuming.
Holly explained the incident and her feelings to Jennifer, but Jennifer urged Holly to at least meet the nail salon lady. “It might not be the same person,” Jennifer said hopefully. Holly agreed. It was the same store, she was sure of it, but maybe the lady was different. Maybe the lady from a year ago was not the owner. Holly agreed that she should at least meet the lady. However, walking through the door, Holly saw immediately that it was the same lady. Holly, being Holly and not wanting to hurt anyone, smiled broadly and left saying nothing. It took her a few minutes to decompress and smile happily again.
Scholars write volumes about acceptance of people not exactly like us and philosophers sometimes use the principle of Occam’s razor which can mean to take the simplest explanation as the best. That’s true in Holly’s case. The way I see it, she sees no sense in disliking someone before she meets them. Holly puts it even more simply, “I am not picky about who I like.”
Holly is part of society’s glue or velcro. She connects people and pulls us together creating the strong bonds we need in times of stress. Most important, she does it without excluding or hating anyone. We all agree that the world needs more engineers, scientists and people of letters, but even more does it need people like Holly who keep us smiling and liking one another.
