timeless treasures for the taking

Just When I Thought Knew Everything

     I had the occasion to slip out yesterday and put behind me a project way past due and that was a haircut and trim. I doubt that being able to present myself in the most favorable way will be of any consequence to anyone but me and my mirror , but still I have no intentions of disappointing either  as a consequence of inaction.  So I hopped into my car and made an appointment to have both done at a place in New Philadelphia, Ohio I know of.

      On my way there in the town of New Philly as locals have been known to call it and coming upon the courthouse on the left as I drove in town, I was stopped by traffic as is usually the case. I think the town of New Philly likes to have you sit in front of their courthouse, as it seems this is always the case when travelling through town. Streetlights out of sync so that one cannot just fly past the county square without taking the time to drink in the beauty of small town life.

    At times you could swear it was ripped right out of a Norman Rockwell painting of small town life. in the winter the courthouse is adorned with white twinkling lights sparkling in the clear night air lighting up the majestic dome adding flavor to the season,  and on the front steps leading up to the main entrance from the square , a display is set up on the now vacant steps to symbolize the number of domestic abuse complaints, drawing attention to the plight of families as they go through the Christmas season when tensions are the highest as families let their tempers boil as they try to make ends meet.

     Not far from that a veteran took his life in the front lawn where a Vietnam veteran memorial now stands. He was looking for help but couldn’t seem to find it that day as he took his life. I glanced at the memorial and something caught my eye from across the street where a mural takes up a whole wall with symbols of Tuscarwas county history, I noticed and old man and woman waiting on the corner for the light to change before they cross the street.

       When I speak of old I am merely suggesting with more years than I , but at this point I can’t really tell someone’s years. I am finding some friends I went to school with age faster than others and some look as if they are caught in a freeze frame, not having aged much since youth. This man because of his appearance and being bent with time, and as well his companion, or I assume his wife , who was dressed in a slightly unkempt manner herself as she fidgeted and pointed to this and that until the light changed and she grabbed his hand as if to help or tug the older man across the intersection to the other side. At times brushing up and almost leaning on each other to struggle their way across.

     I was sitting at the light and had the window open in a midday sun. A warm to hot breeze blew through the car, but not nearly as hot and dry as it was out where this couple was crossing the square under the shadow of a courthouse dome. I watched them intently at times feeling sorry but glad they had each other to lean on as they get older.

     As they neared the other side I could see the older woman’s enthusiasm seem to ratchet it up a notch as something most assuredly had caught her attention as she tugged on the old man’s sleeve and dragged him toward a planter at the end of a park bench. At one point she dropped her grasp of him and begins to bend over and then I could see what she was going after. A rose so perfect its red beauty showed itself to me sitting across the square. I watched as she bent even closer and cupped the whole flower between her two hands and stuck her whole face down and inhaled the beauty of that rose. Drawing the essence of the moment along with its aroma deep into her lungs and holding it as long as she could drinking in the euphoria of simple life , and simple rewards to living a full life.

    I then watched as her husband, boyfriend or whatever he may have been to her at the time and most assuredly her partner in crime appreciate the moment and force a crooked smile to his lips that suddenly bloomed into near laughter at the sight of his woman. Not laughing at her but instead with her, as he also drank in the moment regardless of whether he had smelled the same thing. Instead he was drunk on her reaction to such a sweet gesture by the woman who was undoubtedly reliving a moment of life .

      One would not smell a rose so deeply as her if you didn’t know what a rose smelled like , she had been there before and was going back again. As she let that sweet aroma linger on her lips and past the tip of her tongue on the way out of her body, her wrinkled face made a smile that smoothed out even the deepest furrows in her face, so that her youth shown all over in place of what had been there before.

      I sat in the car and noticed their smiles were so infectious as I too was smiling inside as I watched them interact in such an impish way. I suddenly realized I was handicapped as I sat there in the car being denied that chance, of a moment of happiness they were experiencing as that couple together in the big little city. Also my initial reaction to them was one of pity, feeling sorry for them as they leaned on each other to just cross the street. But oh the rewards for instant youth they had gathered in their smiles as they stopped and smelled the roses, and here was I now being denied that chance and I was envious of them. Knowing full well my experience would not be so welcomed if I were to exit my vehicle leaving it sit in traffic where it sat till the light turned green.

     It may be ok till the light turned green as assuredly people would just gawk when I left my vehicle , but for sure they would be bitching and yelling when I stopped to smell that rose for myself after crossing the square on foot. I know what a rose smells like, and I also know what those guys in the black uniforms are for. They like to write out tickets for such stunts with enthusiasm as great as the old woman’s to the smell of a rose. Any words I could use to try and express my desire to be there with them and enjoy that moment would be lost on deaf ears.

      The light turned green and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the anxious look on the driver behind me and I wondered if he too had witnessed this miracle of human life. If he did it was lost on him as it seemed I could see his relief as my car passed the old couple on the right now and everything sped up as I now had to concentrate on my driving. Still I was left with an emptiness and filled with envy of those folks back there withering in the distance where all that is left of them is my memory of that moment.

    My biggest envy of the moment was not having someone so simple as to be able to stop and smell the roses , but instead having that person in my life to lean on to get there, and then to have the time in this busy world to actually be able to do it. Lest we not forget the memories of times before to make it want to happen again.

    So in the end I will never look at a rose again without some thought to how beautiful life can be when you take time to bloom with someone you care about. And I must remember to stop and smell the roses along the way, if for no one, but for myself.