Say what...?

I have an experience to share with you.  I am not sure what to make of it, so I am hoping that writing about it will settle it in my mind for me.

A couple of days ago, I was sitting outside of a well-know cheese shop in my suburb of Surry Hills Sydney.  This up-market cheese shop also has a coffee shop attached to it, where you can get cake and coffee but also cheese and wine.  All very civilised!  I was waiting outside because I was early for a meeting with a networking contact.  I was in a suit with on-trend thin tie, pocket kerchief and a tie clip.  A true Surry Hills Hipster!

A woman strolled past.  She was dressed simply in a patterned flowing gown, hippy in design.  She had a page-boy bob hairstyle with a flower in her hair.  I couldn't tell if the flower was real or plastic.  She had a bag slung diagonally across her, the hard black strap severely slicing her patterned dress in two.  The only remarkable thing about her was that she wasn't wearing any shoes.

She smiled at me and this is the conversation that followed:

Her:  How are you?
Me:  I am fine, thanks.  And you?
Her:  I am fine.  No, actually I am amazing!
Me:  That's wonderful!
Her:  Actually, I bet I am more amazing than you will ever be.  All you can ever be is "fine" - I get it.
Me:  [Silently smiling]
Her:  You know, I will always be more amazing than someone like you in this country.
Me:  [Still silently smiling but now sitting very still]
Her:  It's a fact that people like me will always be better than brown people like you.  Always.
Me:  [Inwardly sighing]
Her:  I pity people like you.  I really do....  Look around you - do you think you will ever be happy?

At this stage the person that I was meeting appeared.  He had witnessed most of the conversation as he approached.  She walked on, still smiling at me.  She waved goodbye.  My coffee companion was suitably incensed but I just shrugged.  We went into the shop and ... well... talked shop.  It was a networking coffee after all!

But here's the thing.  She didn't appear to say anything in a malicious tone.  It was almost as if she had a realisation in that conversation.  Maybe I caught her at the moment of understanding the consequences of the decisions that the Australian government has made?  Maybe she is now understanding the impact of these decisions on the wider Australian society?  Maybe these are heart-felt regrets of hers?

It is unfortunate, but these incidents aren't rare for me.  It is hard to fully understand her motivation without having a more detailed conversation with her.  It would be easy to say she is one of the many crazy people that roam the streets.  Or that she was a racist bigot.  But for the first time I didn't detect anger, malice or criminal intent.  For the first time it sounded heartfelt, not at something I can not change, but at the state of the world today.

And for the first time, I didn't just discount it as the ramblings of a small-minded bigot.