Where does the time go? A day or two ago I was riding the "sardine train" home and I noticed a few people. I've always been a people watcher. I used to go to the mall just for the fun of it when in High School and walk and watch people. (The funniest was a guy with a wifebeater tucked into his sagging jeans that were strapped to his hips and slung under his butt... or the cross-dresser who was about 6'5" with his red pumps and blue mini skirt and blond madonna wig; Ah, good 'ol Tacoma WA.) For these to personages that I saw in Paris my heart actaully pondered their person. The first was a young man, probably my age, tall and directed into our crowded car by a metro attendant. He carried is eyes in his hand and immediately found the pole to hang onto. He was blind. I've seen blind people before but this guy looked to be a professional business man, carrying his briefcase and cane. He probably made it a daily ritual to board the train at Auber, grab the pole and say "excuse-me" as he put his briefcase on the floor. Right now its spring in Paris and so beautiful. He can't see it. Sometimes I wish I had the audacity to act as one character in a movie I have seen several times now: Amelie Poulin, running up next to the old blind man she has seen around for years and helping him cross the street explaining all that is around, including the price of meet at the butcher and what the children out side the store are looking at.

The other man I noticed was an African man. I noticed him because of some scars on his face. My first thought was that maybe he had been attacked by an animal because they resembled large cat scratches. But I relented and soon concluded they were there on purpose because of their symatry... two on each cheek and two roughly centered on his forehead. All six fell from upper cheekbone to jaw or from hair to eyebrows and I realized that it was most likely from some ceremony in a tribe. His dark brown eyes darted around the train and I suddenly was struck with the reality of an active tribe somewhere in Africa where this man had grown up and now he was moving about in a huge metropolitan in Europe; he looks to be only in his early 30s. What kind of god does he serve? What does he fear most? What must that transition have been like for him?