tonight i experience silence for the first time in years at least, if not ever. i walked down ohara/bigelow instead of fifth ave to get home from upper campus, and somewhere between the engineering building and the newman center, the last car passed and i was struck with this suspicion that the only sound was coming from my feet on the pavement. so i stopped.....
and it was silent.
there was some far-off road noise from whereever it is that cars always are, but that was the only sound i could hear. i looked up to see if there were stars, too, but i was standing between too many streetlights. it was... profound. and overwhelming. i felt like i should have stayed in it for longer, and at the same time i was frightened by what might be hiding in it. ultimately, the fact that it was 10:00 at night and i needed to get home won the fight for largest motivation.
the other day i met the kid who doesn't wear shoes. i had a class with him last semester, and i see him around sometimes, and i think it's awesome that he doesn't wear shoes. i was walking back from class, and he was sitting cross-legged right in the middle of the sidewalk i was walking on. so i said, "excuse me...could i interrupt you for a minute?" and explained how i had a class with him and think it's awesome that he doesn't wear shoes and i wanted to introduce myself. and he told me his name and i told him mine and we shook hands. and i asked him why he doesn't wear shoes and he said "because i don't like them" like it was the stupidest question he'd ever heard and he probably gets it way too much and assumes people often aren't asking it when they want to.
he treated me like i was weirder than he is, which i am, but like he thought that was a bad thing. so the kid who doesn't wear shoes is not as cool as i always imagined he was. some things are better left unsaid, i guess.
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