Plums
- jenminotti
- Feb 22
- 2 min read
By Kimberly Rowe
PROMPT—Privilege ...
A few weeks ago, I was driving to the store in a rental, a Mitsubishi Outlander. I was still pissed off because my new Sequioa was still in the shop, damaged by the valet at the hotel we were staying, only five days after I had gotten the truck. With my Starbucks in hand, I chuckled in my mind that I was feeling “wine insecure” not thinking about how I used the “insecure” term completely wrong. Once parked at the store, while fetching my reusable bags from the back end of the rental, a woman approached me and asked if I could give her anything for food. Uncomfortable, I told her I don’t carry cash, which I don’t. She retreated and I went into the store, still clutching my $7 latte, feeling instantly guilty, knowing how much I was about to spend on groceries, to include wine. It isn’t common to be approached in the parking lot at this grocery store in this part of town. As I walked around the store, I tried to put words into what I was feeling. White guilt wasn’t the right term. Entitlement? No, that wasn’t it. Sympathy? Guilt in general? While inside, I grabbed some extra fruit, specifically oranges and plums, to give the woman when I returned to the parking lot. She was no longer in the aisle where I parked. I drove down an extra aisle to see if I could spot her, but she was gone. On my way home, I called my husband to tell him the story of the woman and my failed attempt to give her fruit and asked him to help me put words to my feelings, how I felt bad I was annoyed by my inconveniences while this woman may have been just looking for her next meal or for that of her children. I don’t know if “bad” was the right word, either. Later that night, I ate one of the plums, which was one of the sweetest, juiciest fruits I had eaten in a while.
Kimberly Rowe is a wife, mother, veteran, and student. Kim grew up in California but has made Colorado her home for the past 16 years. Kim spent her first 16 years in the Air Force in Logistics. Her final four years, she was an instructor of leadership and management. After retiring from the Air Force, Kim began teaching Composition, Professional Writing and Literature at multiple colleges in person and online. Kim earned her Bachelor’s of Arts in English through University of Maryland and her Master’s of Arts in English through Northwestern State University in Louisiana. Her master’s Thesis was entitled, "Fairy Tale Stepmothers: A Study of the Grimms Depictions of Fairy Tale Stepmothers and the Acceptance of Stepmothers Today" with many forms of media used to support how mass media impacts public perceptions and beliefs when it comes to being a stepmother. Kim is now a full-time student at Bay Path University, pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction. Kim and her husband (who is a Marriage and Family Therapist) are working on a he said/she said book about marriage, love, and communication from their perspectives.