He had a loquacious way about him. I quickly found him jejune, in my search for words that are only found in lexicon, such as nanotechnology. I wanted to kow-tow him in his efforts to sustain a conversation with someone as belittling and nihilistic as I. But, just as I look up from my paperback of word searches, his voice seemed lugubrious and I acknowledged him. Those thick, round glasses and that deep stare. Not the stare of a thinking man, but the stare of a young man who has just discovered that he will be a father- desperate, puzzled, and searching for a way out.
“Tell me about the sunset.”
I scrambled to find myself.
“Um… excuse me?” I reply, now actually conversating with the man.
“Tell me about the sunset.” he said. “What’s it like?”
A million words danced in my head but only one word cha-chaed more than the others- “beautiful”, was all that I could manage. Then, after just a moment of thinking, a smile appeared on my face.
” The jade, soft pinks, lavenders, baby blues, and amarillos all sway together as one around the sun. It looks like a new born baby whose mother was told she could never have kids. It looks like an old married couple sitting on their porch in their rockers, sipping iced tea and lemonade, with their grandchildren listening intently as they tell the story of how they met, fell in love, and started a family. It looks like pure happiness.”
And with this, the man- still staring off of the pier, past the water, and into the horizon- removed his sunglasses. A single tear rolled off of his cheek and landed on his tattered pants.
“Everyday I come here and everyday someone sits right where you’re sitting and everyday I ask them to tell me about the sunset, but, no one has ever answered me until now.”
And in that moment, I realized that I could spend the rest of my life trying to describe this sunset, but no amount of explaining will ever do it justice.
We both sat and watched the sunset, smiling. No words; just smiles of two starry eyed children at heart. Even a nonsectarian could appreciate such divine beauty, set forth by such simple, yet complex materials. Clouds and light that create a simplistic, transiscst- like getaway, into the unknown. And this man will never see this gossamer ray, draped over the Earth like a blanket draped over an infant, shielding it from the cold.
freakfreely 