The Thing

Um, it's winter.

Well, early spring.

Which in Canada is ... winter.

But here in Windsor it hit 35 degrees! The sun beat down and you could almost see the flowers grow. Joe and I hit the mall for a haircut and on the way out I stayed on the sidewalk and Joe went to get the car. I sit on sidewalks a lot more now. Frankly, I enjoy it.

There is a sidewalk life. Smokers out side smoking. Co-workers outside complaining about the boss. Friends chatting before having to leave. It's a glmpse of life I've never known before. But there are also others like me, waiting to be picked up - enjoying a brief moment alone, a brief moment of complete independance.

For a second a large shadow loomed over me and then passed as quickly as it came. I looked up and saw a man with a disability in his twenties stop, survey the landscape and then set back on his heels. He's waiting. I recognize the stance now. Alone and free. He was trying to quickly eat an ice cream that was running pell mell over his fingers.

He caught me looking and smiled.

"This is the life," he said.

I was feeling chatty so I asked, "What the ice cream?"

"No," he said, "the ice cream, the sunny day, the whole thing. The whole big thing."

"Yeah," I said, "It is the life isn't it?"

I noticed that others, listening, had begun smiling too.

Quality of life - it's odd that it isn't about having education.

Quality of life - it's odd that it isn't about jobs and status.

Quality of life - it's odd that it's not about the things parent's worry about.

Teachers teach about.

Philosophers quarrel about.

It's about ice cream on a hot day.

"The whole big thing."