People Watching

I love people watching. Just to observe different people at different points in their lives is something so amusing. The other day on the train, I saw an interesting guy. I ripped out a sheet of staff paper from my music theory notebook and started scribbling. Here's what I wrote down:
"The guy on the train in front of me hobbled onto his seat with his big old-looking suitcase. He was wearing a pair of regular-joe-semi-unflattering jeans, a polo shirt, and an old worn out leather jacket. When he was finally seated, he looked out the opposite window and tried eagerly to wave to whoever he was leaving. I don't know if they saw him (I don't think so) but when they were finally out of sight, he let out a big sigh and dug into his dunkin donuts breakfast sandwich. Who knows. Maybe he is starting a brand new chapter in his life. Or maybe not...who knows?"

The thing though, that I guess I was really trying to capture, was the fact that the way he eagerly looked out to the person he was leaving was so recognizable to me. Even though I had never met this guy, or even seen him in my life before, (actually, I didn't even see his face(!)...only the back of his head) I too can remember looking back at someone I love, trying to hold on to them with my eyes for as long as I can before we have to be separated; until I know, for sure, that they are truly out of my sight. It's a desperation to hold on to the old, the familiar. And a reluctance to be thrown into that new situation. Stupid train, why did it have to move in the first place. Why did it have to take this guy away from what he truly loved?

Maybe its so that he appreciates his loved ones more. That's why trains move. That's why life moves. Because if we stand still all the time, we're just spoiled silly. Not subject to change, immune to time.

People can't be immune to time. That's why the train moved.

-Fréd