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The first thing | noticed was the
smell. It was a musty human
smell. It was the scent mixture
that results from the extremely
dirty and the extremely clean co-
inhabiting the same small space.

| was in a shopping mall
entrance which for me was
doubling as a bus shelter. It was
one of those strange transition
places, not quite in the mall but
not quite out on the street. |
was sharing my little in between
space with a crowd of fellow
travelers; A beautiful woman
in a purple hijab, wearing mix-
matched, oversized, stripped
sweaters; A business man in a
suit and tie with a look on his
face that either said, “ I'm better
than you and you disgust me”
or “Il just smelled a fart’; An
overweight man in a red t-shirt
with sweat stained armpits; A
homeless man, crouched in a
corner with his head held in his
hands.

The woman _ in_ the
stripped sweaters answered her
cell phone. She tucked it into the
side of her hijab so that she had
both hands free to dig through
her purse. It was a pretty cool
trick | must say

As | was marvelling at the

ingenuity this action entailed,
| realized that my muscles
were relaxing. The tension

was flowing from my body. The
change was enough that | came
out of my day dream to try to find
the cause of my relaxation.

It took me a minute to pin-
point exactly what it was. The old,
homeless man was chanting.
He was repeating the same
unintelligible two syllable word
over and over again. His rhythm
was perfect. He had a deep,
husky, soothing voice. His voice
was so low and he was speaking
SO quietly that it took me a long
time to locate it. It was similar to
the deep voice of a male Celtic

singer. He had perfect pitch, like
he had been singing his song all
his life.

It was beautiful; | wished
| had a tape recorder. | looked
closer at the man for the first time.
He had a patchy white beard and
dirty white hair. He wore a faded
dirty pair of blue jeans and a
green wind breaker with holes in
the over used arms. His voice
created a Zen-like calm around
him. Time seemed to stop; it was
replaced by a complete sense of
utter comfort and safety. | found
myself at home in the tiny oasis
he created in the middle of busy
down town.

llet my bus go by, unwilling
to leave the man’s voice. All
the while he was chanting ano
chanting his two syllable word
over and over.

Finally he decided to
leave, he stood and | looked in
his eyes for the first time. They
were shockingly blue, ice blue.
severe and piercing. They were
so beautiful that | almost didn’t
see his missing teeth. | wantec
to tell him that that his voice was
beautiful and pure. | wanted to
tell him that | would never forge’
his song but he was gone before
| could speak.

The spell was broken
he was gone, shuffling his way
down a busy street.

My Thoughts:

| really enjoyed writinc
this assignment. I’m the kinc
of person who takes specia
note of the unspectacular ir
my day to day life anyhow so
found keeping a notebook o
my thoughts enjoyable. | think
| will continue to leave my little
notebook in my purse so | car
keep track of my little thoughts
They may seem unspectacula
to the rest of the world but they
are spectacular to me.

kahed
Eo
=_
bad
|
oacad
bese
=
oa
td
Leal
sai
pose
™
Cc