Monday, October 03, 2005

I'm starting to see...

I feel like this blog is a bit like a sanctuary... the one place I have a bit of reflection time on the rest of my life. My days happen so speedily... moving from one task to the next... with little transition time. No wonder I get frusturated sometimes when something doesn't go exactly according to plan. Friday was one of those days. I had the entire day to catch up on school work and errands, and it got all jangled up, everything taking longer than it was supposed to. I'm so impatient!

In the morning I went to one of those small dingy offices on Mission street to get something notarized (I have no clue how people are deemed responsible to be Notary Publics--do you?). It was like an episode out of the Sopranos. The office smelled like big sweaty men and it was about 2 desks deep and I was in between them, and a feuding couple in front of me. It occured to me that people live so differently and I was just getting a little window into this man's life. His pictures of his children in graduation gowns, himself as a younger man with big lamb chops, a map of his home country of Nicaragua, his framed letter of Bush and Reagan:(... his messy soiled desk, his videos of 80's Scorsesesque films, his various business certifications. It's funny how much I remember.

The next office I went to was for an errand for Hugh to drop off receipts at the Burning Man office. A young man and a baby answered the door, a bored looking woman was making copies with bunny ears on, art was everywhere in the form of fuzzy and spiky sculptures and hand painted posters, people were operating efficiently and in "everyday costume"... a man (a muse for Hugh's murals) has a jet black beard braided with wire wrapped around his neck, with a flower on the end. His face pale, contacts white! and a hat with a propeller on top with a proper suit.

Then I go to my school... and plop myself down at the library and see bunches of young arty students. It's hard to describe since this is my normal surrounding. And to the gym and see sweaty jocks...

How many worlds do I traverse through in record speed? Do we all? I'm being a little indulgent here with my descriptions and recounting of place, and I'm not sure there's even a point here, but it feels like a beginning. I majored in Anthropolgy in college (the first time) and am so curious as to how people behave.... maybe it's just my process of noticing and slowing down. When I get to a place of trying to control everything... faster & more efficient and to my allotted schedule... I want to try to observe the details and relish in this rich complex life we lead.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To be a Notary (at least in Mass)you just have to send in a form and then take an oath at the State House. It's quite simple! I used to be one. Do I sound like a know-it-all?
I like your descriptions of the opposite couples! I can almost see them, like a movie, where their paths must cross for some reason.

Scott said...

Worlds within worlds. Your experience is one of the sublime pleasures of living in a city. All these parallel worlds coexisting yet almost totally unaware of each other.

Anonymous said...

what a great post. it's funny how easy it is to forget that people have lives all around us!
i love reading your site/looking at your art. i linked to you, if that's okay.
-sarah