I had thai pumpkin soup for lunch today. It was delicious. I ordered a bowl from the café owner and sat down to wait for it to appear before me.

The café was busy with lots of people coming and giving their orders for focaccias and sandwiches and, of course, thai pumpkin soup. Customers were waiting to be served while the café owner heated bowls of soup, toasted focaccias and delivered meals.

A man in a wheelchair was waiting to be served, perhaps waiting for his own bowl of thai pumpkin soup. His wheelchair meant that he was sitting below the level of the counter, and he was trying to catch the eye of the café owner as he waited. An upright man came into the café and also began to wait.

Shortly, the café owner was able to pause in her tasks and turned to the upright man to take his order. He, perhaps believing that the wheelchair man was being attended to, placed an order for thai pumpkin soup.

The wheelchair man, offended at being overlooked and ignored, turned on his wheel and left. The café owner did not react. The upright man did not react.

The café owner simply didn’t notice the wheelchair man. In her business and activity, she failed to look down to where he was sitting and simply didn’t see that he was waiting to order.

Oh well, no harm done.

The café owner (had she noticed the wheelchair man leaving) might have regretted not noticing that he was there, but she had plenty of other customers who were ordering some of that thai pumpkin soup. The upright man (had he noticed the wheelchair man leaving) might have felt a twinge of regret that he had not pointed him out to the café owner, but surely it wasn’t his job to monitor who was being served.

I observed the upright man and the café owner and the wheelchair man and I did nothing. I thought to myself “oh, how dreadful”, but I didn’t offer him a bowl of my thai pumpkin soup.

The wheelchair man was forced to go somewhere else to find his lunch, and he would surely look first for a place that would notice him and accord him the respect that I am sure he deserved. But perhaps that place wouldn’t serve such delicious thai pumpkin soup.

And perhaps he, like me, would go back to his workplace afterwards and talk about his luncheon experience. I would tell my colleagues of the wonderful meal, but he would tell his colleagues of the great injustice he had suffered. He would not recommend the soup.

I wondered whether there was a place where the wheelchair man could taste some of the thai pumpkin soup – where the wheelchair man, and the upright man, and even I could all be served the same meal. I wondered whether the wheelchair man would be forced to compromise his luncheon menu, simply because he was unable to be seen in places which served the meal that he wanted.

The thai pumpkin soup was delicious.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 18th, 2003 at 1:18 pm by dan and is filed under challenges for the church, poetry and writings, random musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.