Last night I was at a residents’ meeting in the lobby of my building. Those meetings are consistently dull, and unfortunately the group last night was the smallest I’ve seen yet. I skip most of the meetings myself, so I can’t judge.
Our main source of entertainment was watching other building occupants walk through the lobby, on their way up to their apartments or out for the evening. One, a casual friend of mine who gave up on the meetings a long time ago because they were excruciating, moved at a fast clip with a small suitcase on wheels. Maybe he was just in a hurry to go somewhere, but it’s also reasonable that he was keeping the adrenaline pumping to avoid catching any contagious yawns.
Earlier this week, that friend posted something on social media suggesting we wear rainbow images to show support for the shooting victims in Orlando. He was wearing a rainbow button when he bolted past us last night. I saw it in the blur.
This morning, I sifted through my long-neglected button collection. I knew there were LGBT-themed messages, including rainbows. Found some interesting stuff.
The rainbow button thing is a good idea right now. Most of the people who died or were injured in the Pulse massacre were young enough to be my children, and there’s very little I can do for any of them personally. A lot of us have made that observation, and if nothing else we can donate money (if we can afford it), attend candlelight vigils and wear rainbows. It’s small, but it’s something.