Faces and Places

*** This is what I came up with while riding the max, yes I am observant :) ***



The faces, all the faces, the smiles, the tears, the look of worry or love, so many people, so many faces that surround us everyday, do you pay attention?

Everyone has a story, everyone has a past. As you observe those around you, do you wonder what their story is? Where they came from, who they are, where they are going.

My mind wonders as I stare out the window, the man sitting across from me in a wheelchair holding hands with the one he loves. How did he get there, does he look sad? No. He is sharing a moment with a woman, gazing in her eyes, oblivious to everyone around him, whispering "I Love You". I smile.

A mother trying to control her children, wearing a purdah; smiling at everyone around her. The man next to me offers her a seat, she politely declines, and her children cling tightly to her long dress. Still she smiles.

As I listen to my music, not hearing the conversations around me, but picturing all those who surround me. I smile.

I watch two young kids kissing and holding each other. Oh to be young and in love, do they know this is only the beginning? Do they think about the end? Why should they, they are happy in this moment, this one moment.

As my journey continues on, I observe are two young people sitting beside me, one is looking out the window with a look so sad I almost want to reach out and hug him. His friend is trying to talk to him, he is listening to music, and he ignores her. Her hair is so many different colors; she has so many piercing and her clothes well, a little off beat for my taste. Immediately I judge. Who am I to judge? It was not so long ago that I myself had holes in my body. As I listen to her voice, I hear nothing but a gentle soft voice, not at all a reflection of her image. She tries to engage her sad friend in conversation; he continues to look out the window and ignore her, looking incredibly sad.

A boy across from me is talking on his cell phone about staying sober for 2 weeks; when he turns 18 he will no longer go to juvenile hall, but to actual jail. He is laughing. He is so young. Does he know the consequences of his actions may affect him later in life? No he does not, he thinks he is invincible. I too once thought that.

The woman sitting there knitting away, again oblivious to those around her and sitting next to her a man reading the bible, then two African American men step onto the train, one with and afro, the other with "bling" and a blue hat with multi colored ? marks all over it. They are sharing headphones to an MP3 player, practicing their beat, tonight they are performing. Determination masks their faces.

Oh the places you will go. The people you will see. Will you judge, or will you observe? Will you move away from a person who doesn't look quite right, will you sit next to someone who resembles a gentle kind person? You realize that everyday we make the choice to see people for their image, not who they are. We judge them on based their appearance or their action, but we don't know where they came from or where they are going.

The face only shows the surface, watching a man who is smiling, may be holding back tears, the woman who has a look of worry on her face may be going home to an abusive relationship, or maybe her child got a bad grade and she is not looking forward to a discussion with him or her. The teenager who just stepped on the bus to get to the airport and fly home to see family whom they ran away from a short while ago, thinking they could make it on their own.
The fact of the matter is we don't know. The gentle, kind looking person could be a rapist, or a ruthless person, the man who looks disheveled could be a hard working father who has a wife and kid at home. Oh the places we will go, the places we have been, the judgments we make, the choices we decide. Not everyone is as they appear, nor is something as it seems. The outside can be deceiving, the inside is most revealing. We don't often get to see the inside of the faces we see everyday. Don't be so quick to judge, you must remember you are being judged by all the faces that surround you.

- "He who is different from me does not impoverish me - he enriches me. Our unity is constituted in something higher than ourselves - in Man... For no man seeks to hear his own echo, or to find his reflection in the glass."
-Antoine De Saint-Exupery