Life, actually…

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AIRING OUT THE UNNOTICEABLES 

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Paying attention to the normally unnoticeable is my favorite pastime. It’s a way to avoid dealing with the harsher realities. It is deeply satisfying at times when nothing else is.

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Paying attention to the villages and villagers around me keeps me in touch with the textures of being alive.

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For instance:

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The Wandering Woman shows up everywhere I go. She is always on foot. She is forever on her way to someplace else. Her lanky, serious trek is all-consuming. I see her in the ‘burbs, in the town centers, in the in-between alleys and roadways. You can watch for her, too. She’s the woman whose scarf hides her hair, or the lack thereof.

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I pass by a brilliantly-red fire engine and the firefighters who make it sparkle. I wonder, Why is a fire station called a Fire Station? Why not Life-Endangering Conflagration Abolition Central or Department of De-Flamation or Fahrenheit 451 Control? Or even Douse That Fire Headquarters?

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I cruise the asphalted lanes piercing the villages. My wife asks, Why does the interstate highway sign read Downtown Exit? Why isn’t it called Entrance, since the turn lane leads into the City, not out of it?

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I espy the homemade signs, both mysterious and misleading. The best sign I ever saw: EARS PIERCED WHILE YOU WAIT. No kidding. Just two blocks from my shop.

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One thrift store has a large hand-lettered sign: DO NOT PLAY WITH TOYS. So…what else would they like for me to do with them? It would be more poetic to say: DO NOT TOY WITH TOYS.

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I just drove past an elevator service repair company, located in a one-story building. Think on this for a moment.

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A large metal sign at the Power Company instructs, “To provide faster service a bill stub will be required at the drive thru beginning January 1, 1997.” This means a lot if you’re still living in 1996.

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It’s 96 degrees outside. On the sidewalk a hot dog is eating a discarded hot dog.

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They say two plus two equal four. They never specify four what. Does this apply to everything?

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See what I mean? Paying attention to the unnoticeable takes my mind away from crises both real and feared. My paying attention gifts marginalized people with status they don’t even know they have.

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Paying attention makes me feel I am not wasting my time in these climes. Not everything has to be political, not every observation has to be a critique.

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Indeed, paying attention helps me look life and you in the eye. It keeps me in touch with the gentle beauty of all the firmament I am privileged to inhabit.

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Come join me in taking notes and paying homage to all that might otherwise be missed

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Jim Reed © 2021 A.D.

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