We See Them

[wilomn]

I think about this guy. Not all the time, but often enough. What am I reminding myself of when I read this? What was I trying to say when I wrote it? What do I want people who read it, having never seen this guy in particular, but most likely having seen his counterparts in other parking lots, to think, to take away from it?

Those answers change. Sometimes I remind myself that I'm lucky to be who I am, to have what I have. Sometimes it's to remind me that others are not as fortunate as I am, which is almost the same thing, but not in exactitude. Sometimes I wonder if I saw him so I could write about him. And sometimes I wonder if I wrote about him because I had something to say or if, in my arrogance, I have spoken, unasked, for him.

I know I wanted to somehow bring this guy, who I think most of us would look at and never see, unless maybe to snicker when he stumbled, out into plain view.

Well, now you can see him if you look. I guess it's made me think of how and why I treat people the way I do and I guess I was hoping to make others think the same things; how and why. Not about the guy I saw, but about all of his cousins out there in your local parking lots and schools and playgrounds, grocery stores and malls, everywhere that any of us go.

I hope this guy, and his multitude of cousins (all the ones from the Island of Misfit Toys as it were) finds friends and people who care for them, about them. I suppose I hope that for all of us as well.

Heh, two minutes of my life years ago and I'm still thinking about it like it just happened.