I was walking in Athens center with my sister the other day,
in a street called Ermou full of shops, and I was on the lookout for a shoe shop,
because I needed a new pair of sport shoes.
My eye fell on a shop front that held promise and we walked in.
As we entered, just inside the front door was a man, a new employee, who was acting as a greeter.
About 25-27 years old, He was wearing leather shoes, black trousers and a white shirt. Which was in line with the seriousness of the store, which among other things also sells suits.
Yet when I looked in his face to ask him where the shoe section was, to my surprise, I noticed he had an eyebrow piercing.
Since you won't know this, Dear reader, Greece is a conservative country and you would not get a guy having a visible piercing of ANY type in a store that sells suits.
So I ask him where the shoe section is and he tells me. Our interaction could have ended there.
I would have gone, bought or not bought shoes, and maybe nodded to him as I was stepping out the door.
True to my nature, my curiosity piqued, I didn't, and asked him if the management doesn't have an issue with him having the piercing.
and after he overcame his surprise at such an unexpected and direct question, He said no, that he was new to the job and even if they did ask him to take it off he wouldn't.
I liked that. That a person could wear a piercing like that in a serious store in Greece. And that this person had the luxury or the courage to be himself irrespective of the pressure to conform.
I envy and respect people like that, and It always makes my day when people can and do break boundaries.
So I smiled and shook his hand and told him good for you and keep it up.
The fact that a person could work in a serous store like that and still have a piercing made me feel good, seeing it as a reflection, an instance of change, of stereotypes slowly but surely changing.
What can I say. The weirdest things make me smile.
-note to self-
write more often.
