3:23, approximate, and I am walking Freret St. home from school, looking at my feet and dry leaves against the concrete. That spot where a piece of sidewalk dips as I step on it is my favorite.
3:26 I glance right, as I am likely to do, and happen to meet eyes with a little chinese girl riding the school bus who, as she is likely to do, glances left. She waves to me. I wave back.
Two observations about eye-contact: One and great is an instant, self-generated assurance that eye-contact is occurring. Two and frustrating is the implicit indeterminateness of what the contact means to the other person and what its ramifications are for both persons as a unit.
3:26:30 - 3:38:45 The bus passes me, stops in traffic, as I pass it I glance again and a repeat of minute 3:26, now with a synchronized smile, like together we've been caught. The bus continues and passes me, stops in traffic, a repeat of the first clause of the prior line, now we both giggle.
One observation about smiling: unfeigned smiling is also insuppressible.
I like how you've recently written posts like these--short moments, little bursts. The importance of interactions with others, finding the extraordinary in ordinary situations--the stuff of good poetry is here, rendered in approachable nonfiction prose.
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading this. It's nice that it's so short because it's about an encounter that is so short. I love your attention to detail and this gave me such a warm feeling after reading it.
ReplyDeleteYou could probably make a full piece out of a collection of moments like these. Very enjoyable to read.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you presented this piece: from the title, illuminating what follows as "the highlight of your day," to the timestamps on each moment, making them real and gives them a degree of importance.
ReplyDeleteVery eloquent. I really liked the portrayal of this 'chance meeting' as important and refreshing.
I really liked this piece. The last line especially, "unfeigned smiling is also insuppressible." That sums up the encounter you describe really well and is an honest yet evocative statement. I would love to see you write a collection of short encounters like this. Sometimes the random moments/ encounters in life are the most interesting.
ReplyDeleteShort but cute. I like how you talk about just the simple connection humans share through eye contact, a wave, and a giggle.
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