An Impromptu Concert on Lake Shore

Yesterday was a long day of setting up for the Honda Indy Toronto race. As the sun began to get lower in the western sky, we were on the back stretch which is Lake Shore Dr. There’s an amphitheater towards the water back there and there was a concert that was going to take place. The music played there was outside of ear range but the story of this post is the people headed to the concert. 

The lines of people kept flowing out from a tap that seemed to be infinite. Truly, it was a perpetual passing of people that neither grew or decreased. One section of this never ending parade of people started humming a song and then all of a sudden a singing of  “I Want it that Way” took place. 

Why is a random song relevant? As the song bounced around and different parts of the infinite line of people sang, I once again understood that what I was witnessing was something I never have, or will be a part of. 

I got sad. I don’t understand how people can just let go and be completely free with no regard to harmony, pitch, and simply exists without thought. I watched with a great level of envy as this line of people that, in my eyes, had everything kept walking by. 

It took a while but I realized I was falling into the trap of forgetting who I was. That’s such an easy trap for us on the autism spectrum to fall into. In this moment of watching the others, I put the perfection label on them. They were perfect, and I was not. This is a gigantic fallacy, but when viewing others in an envious eye, it is easy to fall into the trap. 

As we drove away from the back stretch I started to wonder how those people looking my way thought. I’ve never thought of this before, but if they knew the places I get to work, the people I get to work with, and the extreme joy I get working my gig as the starter/flagman for the NTT INDYCAR Series, I think they too might have had a hint of envy looking towards the track. A concert may be fun, and I may not let myself go socially and be completely free, but for me there’s no other place I’d rather be than my home at the track.