Saturday, November 21, 2009

Like Clockwork

On the way to class, I sprinted out of the door -as has been my routine for the month or two. It was a cold fall day but I was blessed enough to have the heat come on in my room. I ran to the bus stop. As I caught my breath, I couldn't help but admire the trees in the park at the high school. It metamorphosized from a lush verdant park into a lovely, bright orange. Fall, for whatever reason, reminds me of William Cullen Bryant's Thanatopsis. Fall is a beautiful death but somehow it brings room for more life. And yet through all of that, like Bruegal's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, life goes on: it's like clockwork. As I thought upon this I noticed how so many things are like clockwork.

Last entry, I wrote about the poor woman with the dog who always comes to the library. I think that people only fully notice the world that surrounds them when everyday they live the same life.

As I was sitting at the high school, waiting for the bus, I watched time unravel in the same way it had for a month. I would run to the stop with no one in the streets. After I sat, I would space out for a minute. Soon after, the crossing guard would magically appear. She is a short older black woman with gray hair and glasses. Every now and then she carries a giant walking stick. It isn't an especially beautiful walking stick, just a huge branch of some sort. Then two "scene" boys walk along towards the freshman building with a boy who is rather over-eager to ride his skateboard. It is amusing watching him because I am convinced that he is one of the many kids who are following the newly re-established skater fad, thanks to Lil' Wayne, Lupe and a few other music artists.

I say this because he waits until he gets right down the street from the school to start riding his skateboard. Because there is a slight hill and his friends walk super slow, he rides the back of it at the rate they are walking. I'm sure this will likely result in a broken skateboard by the end of the school year.

After the scene kids trek to the freshman building, a dark haired girl rides towards the freshman building on her hot pink -formally, baby blue- bike. Her backpack always looks painfully large. A few minutes later a tall man with glasses, sweatpants and a baseball cap comes jogging with his leashless, brown and white cocker spaniel. He stops and talks to the crossing lady and then runs across the street down the hill of the park as his dog follows behind. Soon after, the bus pulls up and I cannot remember the myriad of kids who come off the bus but I do remember the random girl who enjoys wearing multi-colored spandex shorts in the bitter cold.

It was interesting watching these people and I will miss them now that the bus schedule has changed. Now, I am at the bus stop a half an hour earlier or ten minutes later. I can still look forward to the local librarians, the woman and her dog and the extremely loud man who carries around a giant stuffed shark, now donning a tie-dye hoodie because fish get cold in the winter, I guess. One day they will leave me or I will leave them. Even so, life goes on.

-O.T.

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