I’m on South Beach in Florida for the next four days.
I’m speaking at the Million Dollar Round Table at the Miami Convention Center — a keynote for about 8,000 people on the mainstage, plus a couple of five-minute bits of storytelling improv and a less formal talk to a couple of hundred people.
Last night, I was standing on a corner, waiting for the light to change, when I saw a family crossing perpendicular to me. They were crossing against the light, which isn’t advisable, but it looked like they had plenty of time to get across.
That was when a man in a red sports car sprinted up the street, which is a thing here:
Men in sports cars accelerating to maximum, almost unbelievable speeds from one light to the next.
It’s crazy.
The cars are so loud, too, which makes dining outside annoying. The constant roar of the engines drowns out all conversation.
In this case, I was worried that a little girl trailing the family might not make it across the street quickly enough, so I stepped off the corner and sort of shuffled her along. This caused me to end up standing beside the man in his sports car — a convertible — when the light changed to red. I must have been staring down at him with a look of anger or disgust because he looked up at me and said, rather aggressively, “What?”
“Your very fancy car goes so very fast. You must be so proud.”
He shouted a less-than-creative two-word response at me.
“So very fast,” I repeated in a singsong voice and quickly walked away. I wasn’t worried about him leaping from his convertible and challenging me, but you never know what people will do.
Especially men who are willing to risk the lives of pedestrians on a main thoroughfare to show off.
Elysha would kill me if I got in a fight on a street corner in South Beach.
It’s so odd to me:
Men with expensive, fancy cars can’t see that sprinting their loud vehicles down the street for a block or two is a screaming, lights-and-siren indication of their inner weakness and fragility.
It’s a sad and pathetic cry for help.
A confident person who possesses genuine self-worth does not attempt to garner the attention of others by driving a fancy car fast. It’s neither impressive nor admirable.
It’s stupid.
Doing so is a desperate plea for attention. A desire to prop up a large but fragile ego. A signal of a lack of maturity, common sense, and decency.
This town is apparently full of them.
