It has become a habit of mine to venture out to the park near my apartment and read my novel and take in the beautiful weather. For the past two weeks it has been sunny with temperatures in the high fifties and sixties. The best part is the weather is only going to get nicer the longer I am here.
Their are always interesting thoughts going through my head as I try to find an open seat on a park bench, which are always somewhat occupied at all times during the day. Are there any completely empty benches? No? Do I want to sit next that guy? Does he want me to sit next to him? What if he starts to speak to me in Italian and I answer back with my dumb ass "Mi dispiace, Non Palro Italiano"? What if he does speak some English and I can have a real good conversation with him? But no matter what, I always end up sitting next to someone and they may nod or greet with a "Buongiorno" or "Ciao", but over all it seems that they barely even realize that anyone else is near them if they're not in conversation with someone else.
And I may read for a while, then try to enjoy the sun, usually with some music playing through my ipod. I look up from my book, maybe glance across the gravel walk to the bench and the man simply sitting there. All he has with him is a bottle of water which he may occasionaly take a sip of. He watches people with out realizing that I am watching him. The term "peole watching" seems like such a stalker-ish phrase...almost prying or intruding on someone else's private thoughts and actions. But it actually isn't that at all, despite what how the term makes me feel. It is more like "people glancing". Just a small peak at someone as they pass by, coupled with your own little analysis which is probably eighty percent incorrect but still interesting.
So I sit there and "people glance" at the man across from me who is "people glancing" at other people as they stroll by, and I realize that all he has with him was this bottle of water. It was just him, the park bench, the bottle of water, the sun, and his own thoughts. I began to think about what he could be thinking about. How could he sit there so long with out moving, with out music or a book? Then I slightly turn my head to the right to the man sitting next to me, who I had asked so many questions to myself about as I walked up to the open seat next to him. He had a book...but he wasn't reading it. At one point he was as I approached him. But now it just sat in his hand on his lap. He wasn't looking at it or reading it. He wasn't even "people glancing". He was just looking, not sure if he was even looking at anything in particular. His eyes weren't glazed or lazy the way they get when you fall in to a deep thought or day dream, but they weren't strained or fixed, the way you would stare at something when your thinking about that one thing. He was obviously thinking about somthing, but it couldn't be anything of any great importance. Both of these men, co-inhabiting the park with me on this beautiful day. Both living, breathing, thinking, but not much more than that. And here I am. Attempting to read my novel, trying to ignore the bombardment of my random thoughts and daydreams. I have music playing in my ears from my ipod. I have my phone on lap so that the vibrations from a friends call with the next thing to do today will stir me from my reading. Why do I have so much going on? Is that wrong? To be non-stop the way I am? I remember thinking, even before I walked out the door of my apartment, 'OK, I'll go read and enjoy the weather for an hour or so and hopefully Frank will call before I get too bored with that and I can move on to the next part of my day." I know that I can't sit still. And I like that about myself. I always need the next event, next hair cut, next tattoo, I can sleep when I am dead. But here I am next and across from two men who are showing a true display of this cliche "European mentality" that you always hear about. Just sitting in the middle of a work day, in a park with just them, the bench, the sun, and their thoughts. They were both there before me. And I'm sure they sat there long past the time I left. I sit there and think to myself 'Am I missing out on somthing?'.
So I take one more "people glancing" look at the man across from me and then one more to the man directly to my right, who has shifted positions and set his book down between us on the bench. I set my novel next to his. I open my ipod case, unlock it and press pause once, then twice to shut the screen off. I take the ear buds out of my ear and wind them around my ipod. I shift positions and cross my legs. And there I sat with my two friends in the park. Not reading or staring or focusing on anything in particular. Just thinking casually about what ever came to mind.
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