People Watching on the UBahn

Today, while I was sitting on the Ubahn (I love the Ubahn. Have I mentioned that?) I was people watching. So many people.

Four women sitting together who didn’t know each other. Everyone avoided everyone else’s gazes, but I looked at them and thought they all looked like they had something in common. I have no idea what it was, but I would love to read the book that connects their lives. Socks with sandals lady, handmade sweater with the tired eyes lady, frizzy hair with the layered clothes and book with child’s eyes on it, perfectly coifed lady who couldn’t wait to get out and smoke.

There was another lady on the train with thin lips and totally Utah poofed hair. She had to be from Utah or Idaho, she just had to be.

There was a blond American girl in a short skirt talking way too loud with food in her mouth who everyone stared at. “One time I had my birthay at the aquaaaairuhm”. “St. Louis has everything, yuh know?”

There was an African-looking guy with a scar under his eye who looked like an athlete and made me think of the world cup, and where he’s been, and why I think about where he’s been.

There was a beautifully saggy old woman with a cane and a candy-striped shirt that brought out the blue in her eyes. When she got on the train, the tired looking business man gave her his seat and they exchanged sincere smiles. She watched the two year old girl in the fisherman’s hat burrow into her mother and tried to hide her sad smile.

I really don’t know anything about these people, except that they are beautiful, and full of life. One lesson of the summer so far: The world is really big and full of people, and they all have lives and loved ones and pain and joy and all of that motivates them to do whatever they do every day. That was wordy, but I know what I meant.