Karen, Wake Up

I tremble as I write this. A middle-aged woman and her young, beautiful girls are busking on the edge of the grocery store parking lot across from my place on a cool August morning.

She’s “playing” Perfect by Ed Sheeran. As I later discover, she’s not really playing the electric violin at all. But this is the blaring sound that reverberates through her amplifier when her bow hits the strings. I’ve heard this song countless times over the past three weeks because it’s on rotation in her pre-recorded auto-playlist.

At first I was angry about the noise. Angry she was disrupting the normal peace and quiet on my street. Then, angry that this sort of operation could be tolerated with no consequences in my city. ‘WHA-T? There are no ordinances for noise in this city?’ It’s the third largest city in the state. ‘WHA-T? There is no permitting required for busking in this state?’ I called the police and was unceremoniously rebuffed. The grocery store General Manager expressed his similar frustration, but he said they consulted their attorney and found there was really nothing they could do about this. They were not doing anything technically illegal. I even posted a “Karen” post on Facebook, complaining.

But, as the days grew long, and she had her little girls out there in the summer heat on the little sliver of…