It all starts with eye contact, the loose thread at the cuff of this whole situation, once made you’ve got no chance of escape short of some crazy about-face and tearing off into the foreground. But who the hell’s gonna do that? Perhaps the sprinter owes the other a considerable amount of money, but I did say “two friends” and you did just start reading so it’s kind of implied that we’re going to see this thing through…so, back to it…visual contact.
Now, It’s very likely half of this pair wants nothing to do with the impending, impeding encounter but those folks are going to need better peripheral vision because it’s way too late now. You see, it takes exactly .0025 seconds to recognize a person as someone you know. Once that knowledge is acknowledged, one or both of you is going to start toward the other. This is, of course, in response to the untaught, unspoken rule and incredible driving need to stand before people we know and make noises and hand gestures. What’s most unfortunate is that it takes somewhere between .0027-.0029 seconds to filter this person through your memories and realize that indeed, you did want nothing to do with Bobby today but as stated, it’s way too late now.
Depending on how well one of our two knows the other one and the amount of time since last they met will directly correspond with the volume and length of our next topic, the vocal and physical parts of a greeting. Typically these will start simultaneously. A short burst of touching along with a prolonged period of conversation. Neither person will begin until hands have touched, shaken, hugged, kissed or patted some part of the other. Regardless of how…you can bet yer bottom yer gonna be touchin’.
Although, as if there wasn’t more than enough going around already, here’s a bit of confusion for the stew, what if they don’t touch? This could mean one of two things and both are just as likely.
1) They are at odds in some way. One fears the other or themselves. There’s some kind of unresolved issue, hopefully the very reason for this meeting. It’s never good to let these things fester, sooner than later everyone will smell it.
2) One or both can’t stop thinking of the other and they want nothing more than the physical contact, mirrored with emotion, that they are presently and purposefully denying.
Weirdos...every one.
Next comes the race. This part is all about sharing but both are going to be in a fast paced game of story trading, experience peddlers, haggling with each other. Back and forth, back and forth, trying to relate, attempting to teach, trying to inspire, congratulating, feigning interest, exclaiming appropriately. This whirlwind of communication, is the preface to a new story. One involving the both of you, unwritten and untold, yet doing so as it happens. This one doesn’t need to be shared because you are sharing it and I hope you both passed kindergarten because its outcome will directly affect the amount of time between now the next possible meeting, as well as the length of time and conditions of this alluded meeting.
Funniest to me is how this communication and motion…ahuhuh…commotion, is usually followed by the complete absence or at least calming down of those very things. As if all of it was just one’s prerequisite for allowing the other to sit or stand close and quietly while they share some time. Really I shouldn’t say “as if” because that is what it is. These are the steps we take before allowing someone front seats to our movie. Not only that, but for a time, you’re stepping back from the lead and allowing a co-star in your show. It’s important stuff. It’s what makes it all worth while, nothing feels quite so real as sharing the world with friends…for whatever amount of time you are able to remain so.
Luckily, we don’t have to go through this ritual …you can read and I don’t have to be anywhere near you. Still, right now we are sharing a moment…time traveling together really. The moment I wrote this it became my past. While my points of view may have changed, the feeling and emotion of these words are locked in them forever. So when you read this, it's a future you communicating with a past me. We cross time and space to be here now. Yup, I just bleeew yer freakin' mind maaaan. That’s the true nature of art or more simply, creation. It's a window to wherever the creator wanted you to go and is the purpose of this blog. It’s my custom tint for others to look out through. Proof that for a span of time I was somewhere, disrupting the world in my own small pseudo-original way.
We truly are a curious bunch. Lunatic navigators out mapping a storm, chasing the day and burning our nights alive moonlighting as all fallible gods. A freegun miracle of survival. A better muse? I've yet to find one...greetings.
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