So, yesterday. I get up and I'm fretting about running errands and making it to my lunch date and then up to see the boy in time and if I really need an oil change and what to pack and if I'm going to be getting a call about a job and when my new debit card will show up and what to eat and not be bloated and if Katie will get picked up from school on time all sorts of other bullshit when I stop to get gas.
I'm done pumping and I'm screwing on my gas cap when something moves and catches the corner of my. It's a man going into the Speedway to pay. His body is just half of a torso, arms and his head and he's on a sort of skateboard. As I'm walking to the door he just entered, thoughts start to flood my head like "How is he living? Where are his vital organs, how do they all have room in that space? Does he still need to eat?" and other logistics based nonsense. When I open the door and go in to pay, he's having a discussion with the girl at the counter about how gas prices shot up 20 cents. And instantly, there were no more science-based questions, I just wanted to discuss that too because what the fuck, gas prices, why did you go up? I found it interesting that in one second, my brain went from pity and curiosity over the most obvious subject at hand to empathy and frustration over a shared subject. (Also, I told him gas was always cheapest in Maumee and he said its too inconvenient to drive over the bridge to save 6 cents and I agreed, but that's neither here nor there)
We talked for a second about the area and where he always sees gas prices and on what days and then he headed on out to his big black truck to pump his 60 bucks of diesel. I paid as well and headed back to my car. When I drove away, I waved at him and I was instantly back to thinking about his situation again.
First of all, it gives you a great big ass perspective check on the shit you worry about daily. Even unemployment and searching for the right job seems insignificant compared to having no body below your rib cage. I also wondered if every day he gets up and worries about the looks he'll get or the questions he'll be asked. How inconvenient it is when it rains or snows. But then I started to think to myself "That guy does not seem like the kind of person who goes around each day pissed about what he doesn't have, that's for damn sure". I really started to consider all the things he gets to know with his hands that the rest of us rarely do if at all.
What's it like to touch pavement on a sunny day and feel that warmth straight out of your air conditioning. What spring grass feels like in your hands in the morning with dew still on it. The crunchiness of gravel. The cool smooth of ceramic tile. The temperature of a summer mud puddle. The crumple of fall leaves when they get to that papery stage on the ground. The seem on a curb where the concrete is molded together. The graininess of different threads of carpeting. The powdery, fluffy, wonderful feeling of light snow on top of biting cold black ice.
I no longer wanted to meet him again to ask him where his stomach is located. I wanted to inquire about all of those things. Things that I now want to randomly touch when I get the chance because my curiosity is peaked in an envious way rather than a pity party or logical way.
And maybe how often he sneaks a peek up skirts or smirks about men who refuse to take the time to match their socks, but then again, that's neither here nor there. :)
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