Graduating Class of the Sidewalk...

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I was on my walk the other day, and a girl with her cap and gown was entering the cab with her friends and family.  It was obvious, she was graduating.  Any passerby on the street surely would wonder where she was graduating from?  I could feel her intense excitement and pure relief of not having to pass exams or write papers about everything from World Politics  to  Art History 101.   Although, not everyone has the same reaction.  Some may harbor personal feelings about not graduating from a College or University.  Although, graduating is a great personal achievement, but some have graduated from their College Experience of Life.

There is always lots to learn outside the classroom, everyday encounters are small lessons in life.  It doesn't seem that way at the time, but later down the road we may remember that a particular day  for things we saw or heard .   The day that stood out for me was when I encountered a painter with his easel on one side of the street, and on the other side was a man propped out of the window clearing ivy off the building.  The painter and I had a conversation and he told me that his painting would later be auctioned, and then the funds donated to a charity.

I continued my walk and thought about  how nice the artist was making a contribution to society with his talent.  I walked a couple more steps and looked up I saw  a man halfway out of the window clearing the ivy off off the building front.  The leaves of ivy  were enough to make a tree and there they were on the sidewalk.  I thought to myself why would anybody do this, and then later I concluded that there could have been a reason that I did not know about.  I did not ask him why, I was standing too far away. 

So perhaps it was wrong for me to assume anything about the situation without investigating it further.  Things aren't always what they seem and justified by one visual observation,  and there is a story or a detailed reason as to why someone was doing such and such.  That is a lesson that I tend to forget, but it is in our nature to make an observation and come up with our own reason and our version of the story.  It is a piece of the story and like the leaves leaves on the sidewalk we need more leaves to have a complete tree and enough details for a conclusion.

There are many things to consider these days, we need more pieces of information to come to a conclusion on the world and everything that is happening around us.  That is a invaluable lesson that will probably take the rest of our lives to figure out, but the days are just as interesting as the whole picture we can paint in the future.