Silent Legacy

Something happened to me today, an epiphany you might say. See, it was early morning, and I had been up way before the sun. Sitting in my car on break, I was frustrated due to my lack of hibernation. I was wrecked, overblown, and fed up with the common cold. But for some reason the aroma of coffee and cigarettes made me feel a little more sane. A tune was playing in the back of my mind, as I thought about the hours to come throughout the day. And as one particular thought began to fade away, I noticed something trivial. Now had it have been, that I am the type of person that loves being woken up to a door slam and another illusion of a dream I had the night before, I might not have noticed the sunlight brush against my hand. Blinded by its brightness, I redirected my view out the window to my left. There he was. See living in a small town has many disadvantages. One, I might add, is the fact that everyone knows everyone. But this guy was not your typical rundown hillbilly native to this town. You could tell just by looking at him, that his day was no better than mine. But unlike me, he seemed to be filled with such high hopes. His clothes were old and plain, and I’m sure that had I been outside of the comfort zone of my Ford Explorer, I might have noticed a certain odor radiating from his pores. Yes, you guessed it, he was a bum. But he was unlike any bum I have ever seen. Just watching his various mannerisms, you could tell that he was not trying to conceal who he was. He knows that he is nothing special but for some unknown philosophical reason, he continues to move on. Walking down the sidewalk of this good for nothing two-stop town, he held his head up high. And I just sat there, sipping my first coffee of the day, totally consumed and amazed by this stranger. That’s when it hit me. He is lucky. He has no material worth, but he knows that with every cold dark night, there is always a dawn. He does not spend his time living in the shadows searching for the possibility of a maybe. No, instead he chooses to step into the light to a world filled with certainty. And because this man had passed my way during my thirty five minute break, I spent the rest of my day in a daze. Constantly pondering the what if’s of life. This bum somehow gave me a little hope for some sort of change to come. So as I lay here tonight, telling you the details of my life, I raise a glass of apple juice to the idea of today being the last day I spend in the grey shadows of the background. Tomorrow, I think, I’ll step into the light.