A Smile
I was walking down Ogden Avenue in Chicago listening to David Bowie’s Outside. I was thinking about the day’s work and the current soundtrack; my face conveyed this moment of stern introspection. A van pulls up to a light two lanes away.
An aside - It’s a subtle fact that you can feel someone looking at you. I say subtle because there are no clichés, little artistic examination and it’s discussed mostly in passing. As a practice of feeling and working with energy, it is often left to the domain of healers and those who see and massage auras. Yet at the other end of other spectrum, I have read that military personal are trained not to gaze too long at a sentinel they are attempting to dispose of. They might feel you looking at them.
Without a thought, I compulsively looked up and over at the van. The passenger was watching me. She was hispanic, had wavy hair and a toasted brown complexion. We locked eyes for a moment and then she placed her left and right index fingers into the corners of her mouth, pushed up and mimed a smile. I realized how stern I must have looked and immediately smiled back at her. These are the gestures that fundamentally make people’s lives better.
— Schmüdde
