In Search of Zerzura
"But nothing's lost. Or else: all is translation // And every bit of us is lost in it... " ~James Merrill, "Lost in Translation"
If I had had my camera while jogging tonight, here is what I would show you:
A twenty-something couple out walking their dog:
When they stopped on the grass for a bit, they sort of reached in for each other and embraced while the dog ran circles around them. The dog was on a leash and every so often I'd think the couple was about to find themselves lost in a mess of rope... but then something would happen and they'd somehow spin themselves, in unison, right out of the mess. The dog kept running around them.... And they never stopped holding on.
At the risk of indulging too greatly in the saccharine, I must admit: that was one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed between two people. So much so, in fact, that I had to look away.
Shortly therafter -- as I took a break midway through my jog to stretch, think, and observe -- I saw five people, all of them elderly, looking out over the water. Two were in wheelchairs, which afforded the moment a supplemental degree of poetics.
I mean... I'm watching these people watch (really watch) the water. And I'm watching as two of them push the others back onto the path, their thin white hair stirring as they twist away from the tide.
That's when it hit me.
When I finally leave this city, I'll miss the lake most of all.
Sometimes watching it -- and observing city-dwellers gather around it like nomads in search of Zerzura -- I'd swear it were the ocean.
There's something to be said for that. Something to be said for finding a momentary oasis in this city of smoke, steel... and cold shoulders.
Labels:
brain chew,
city-living,
diatribes
4 comments:
It is amazing what one is able to see in those brief moments away from our own reality.
I think that's one of the reasons why I've disliked some of the cities I've lived in - the lack of that place where you can get away.
btw: have you ever noticed how much easier it was to find those places when you were a kid? maybe because we were smaller then, but maybe also because we tend to think as adults that those small moments don't exist. However, you've clearly shown that they do if you keep your eyes open. Great post!
Maybe it's because I spent my first six years in the inner city, and the rest on the outskirts (but still technically "the city"), but I have never felt the cold shoulders.
I have always felt welcomed by the glittering skyline, by the wash of the lakeshore, by the hum and buzz of everything downtown...
But then again, I'm a hopeless romantic.
~L
Well said. I certainly see that aspect of it too, and the fact remains that I was much more fond of this place when my commute was a bit shorter. Add three hours of traffic jam into a girl's day, and things sour. Work and apartment frustrations certainly don't help matters either.
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