In Good Faith

His salt and pepper hair is cropped short. His eyes are peacefully closed behind thin black frames, unwavering; his stubbled face, solemn, and his lips, quietly muttering.

The ceil blue scrubs are complemented with a worn pair of running shoes. A hospital badge loosely dangles from the lanyard around his neck.

The train lurches to a stop, he furrows his eyebrows and tightly clutches to something inside a front pocket of his bag. The first cruciform bead with the cross escapes incautiously. He opens his eyes briefly and scurries it back into his hands, continuing with prayer.

Sunrise

4:45 am. Pitch dark. Only the soft sounds of the receding tide are heard. The moist breeze is cool enough for a light sweater and shorts. Crouched atop the lifeguard chair, I peer at the inky horizon. The waning moon and the accompanying stars still hang in the dark sky, shrouded by cumuli. The Big Dipper is clearly visible, each of the seven stars glistening more vibrantly than the others.

A vague, almost ethereal hint of deep crimson sets in from the water’s edge. Finally the ocean’s end and the sky’s start are discernible. The clouds look as though they have been set ablaze. Distinct saffron rays cut through, casting away the nocturne. The hues of the sky encompass a spectrum of reds, blues, and violets.

The sun emerges with its entire magnificent splendor; perfectly round, unabashedly impressive. The ocean looses its blue to the sky and glistens a blinding luminous golden. For a moment, the sun escapes behind the clouds, casting sublime rays on the horizon. A vague silhouette of a distant tanker is visible.

A sultry gust sets in as the sun climbs farther in the sky. The day has arrived. I take off my sweater and snake down the lifeguard chair, towards my bike. I pedal back, a content grin plastered on my face.

Tortoise-Framed Happiness

A wrinkly smile creeps up on the elderly man’s face, each crease telling of a chapter in his life. Behind his thick tortoise frames, his shrunken sea blue eyes glisten with a knowing. He carries an air of contentment, no regrets, no worries; just a silly, goofy, contagious smile. ‘I’m almost finished writing a book’, he says, ‘though I might not be able to complete it. You see, I think I’m getting old.’ He adjusts his tweed newsboy cap. ‘It’s hard for me to type, and keep it all straight up here’; he says pointing to his head.

In the twenty minutes it takes to get from Wellington to Downtown Crossings, I have heard a Hemingway version of this man’s life story. Ex-Harvard professor, traveled extensively, has a wonderful family, now writing this book. No details are disclosed, just inferred.

‘I’m happy’ he finally declares before the train stops, ‘And I wish happiness for you’.

 

(Random conversations with strangers on the T, to be cont’d)

The Professional Student

First let me start off by admitting that I’m a nerd, and I will always be. The importance of learning and knowledge had been hardwired into my brain from a very early age. So now that I’m technically out of institutions of learning, there’s a gaping void in my life. Earlier this week of my coworkers told me about this new website called Coursera. They offer free courses on a variety of topics from the best of universities. You can only imagine my excitement when I looked through it. I felt like a kid with my hand in the candy jar. Naturally I signed up for 3 classes, the most I could take without feeling like I was back in college. They all start at different times in the following three months, the first of them being Introduction to Astronomy.

I’m pretty excited to have my brain chew on something other than just the immunology I’ve been reading for work.

Hopefully more people start taking advantage of this awesome resource!!