“We swore we knew the future
And our words would take us halfway ‘round the world…
But everything goes away.
Yeah everything goes away.”
-"Always Gold" by Radical Face
“Hey.”
The soft word was welcome, a feeling of it, all wrapped in kind intentions and
professional attire. She looked like a movie star, no one specific, just
timeless in that way.
“Do you want to come to the work party tonight? I’ll pick you up.” Her dark hair fell like royal curtains around her perfectly put-together face. The new employee—fresh in from the countryside—sized herself up as an amateur next to this considerate expert.
“I would love that… Thanks so much!” Unkempt curls and mismatched outfit. The new girl donned gratitude as her best accessory, so powerful was her indebtedness in that moment.
“Great. Pick you up at 5:15.”
Their eyes met then. Experienced thoughtfulness greeted clumsy compassion. No two souls so different. And all the world agreed.
Yet theirs was a friendship of the sweetest sort, not in spite, but because of the contradiction that was them.
One night they drove around downtown eleven times looking for cheap parking, when it was all free. They biked up a hill only to stop halfway—had to turn around and leap from stone to stone across the river. Not to say they had done it, just to know that they could. Never minded when they rewound the movies to watch their favorite scene again and again. They taught and learned new loves to each other. Yet somehow remained beautifully opposite.
So many hours, snuck away from time, whispering hurt and dreams into the understanding air. They held the hearts up saying, “Here’s to laughing when we are lost.” Life hit them in the knees, rendering them windswept, but they regained composure together. Getting up is easier with hope at the elbow.
Watching the way others live is often the only inspiration required to ignite courage in a timid, uncertain soul. Any timid parts of them were regularly challenged by one another, by outsiders. So they watched the other live. And great was the courage they replaced uncertainty with. But no courage compared to that called upon when she decided it was time to go away. Movie star headed to a brighter city and country girl left to battle her disheveledness alone.
Kindred spirits parted. Their time together, so brief in the span of their lives. But as Thomas Hardy, the author, once said, “Measurement of life should be proportioned rather to the intensity of the experience than to its actual length.” And so this season together, deceptively short chronologically, was worth whole years of sentiment.
They sat on her porch for the last time, licking up popsicles which had melted onto their hands. They hardly spoke for how much they felt. Life was grand, and what a delight to have one’s horizons widened by differing thought. To see more of what you can be by understanding how someone sees you as more than you are. To be held in such comfortable love that you’re sure you would be alien to yourself without it.
Popsicle faces turned and eyes met. Nostalgia greeted expectation. No two souls so different, or so happy to have walked a short deep way with another.
And all the world agreed.
“…I’m gonna be here ‘till forever,
So just call when you’re around.”
“Do you want to come to the work party tonight? I’ll pick you up.” Her dark hair fell like royal curtains around her perfectly put-together face. The new employee—fresh in from the countryside—sized herself up as an amateur next to this considerate expert.
“I would love that… Thanks so much!” Unkempt curls and mismatched outfit. The new girl donned gratitude as her best accessory, so powerful was her indebtedness in that moment.
“Great. Pick you up at 5:15.”
Their eyes met then. Experienced thoughtfulness greeted clumsy compassion. No two souls so different. And all the world agreed.
Yet theirs was a friendship of the sweetest sort, not in spite, but because of the contradiction that was them.
One night they drove around downtown eleven times looking for cheap parking, when it was all free. They biked up a hill only to stop halfway—had to turn around and leap from stone to stone across the river. Not to say they had done it, just to know that they could. Never minded when they rewound the movies to watch their favorite scene again and again. They taught and learned new loves to each other. Yet somehow remained beautifully opposite.
So many hours, snuck away from time, whispering hurt and dreams into the understanding air. They held the hearts up saying, “Here’s to laughing when we are lost.” Life hit them in the knees, rendering them windswept, but they regained composure together. Getting up is easier with hope at the elbow.
Watching the way others live is often the only inspiration required to ignite courage in a timid, uncertain soul. Any timid parts of them were regularly challenged by one another, by outsiders. So they watched the other live. And great was the courage they replaced uncertainty with. But no courage compared to that called upon when she decided it was time to go away. Movie star headed to a brighter city and country girl left to battle her disheveledness alone.
Kindred spirits parted. Their time together, so brief in the span of their lives. But as Thomas Hardy, the author, once said, “Measurement of life should be proportioned rather to the intensity of the experience than to its actual length.” And so this season together, deceptively short chronologically, was worth whole years of sentiment.
They sat on her porch for the last time, licking up popsicles which had melted onto their hands. They hardly spoke for how much they felt. Life was grand, and what a delight to have one’s horizons widened by differing thought. To see more of what you can be by understanding how someone sees you as more than you are. To be held in such comfortable love that you’re sure you would be alien to yourself without it.
Popsicle faces turned and eyes met. Nostalgia greeted expectation. No two souls so different, or so happy to have walked a short deep way with another.
And all the world agreed.
“…I’m gonna be here ‘till forever,
So just call when you’re around.”
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