the great storyteller

i was there standing at the bus station waiting for a ride home. facing the sun, i did not move away. i wanted to savor its glorious heat.  working on a night shift, one needs to take advantage of the morning sunlight.  it is said sunlight is a good source of  vitamin c. 

it was about 10 in the morning but the sun's warmth is comforting.  i squinted my eyes and peripherally looked at this amazing disc of life.  i wondered how long she will last. how many generations more of earth life will she sustain. amazing, indeed! saint francis of assisi called it Brother Sun.  well, thanks so very much for life, brother sun!

there were others in that bus stop.  there were this group of very young people.  judging from the way they dressed and looked they were part of the city's young vagrants.  they just chose this bus stop to while the time away. horsing around.  i am saddened at this sight. young lives wasting away.  time slipping by and yet these young lives are somehow going to what direction, i wonder?  where are their parents?  why are they not at school? 

horsing around. this is what they do. i looked at them. one looked back at me and extended an open palm and contorted her face to approximate a forlorn face.  begging me for a coin or two.  yet, my heart is hard this time and i did not give any.  realizing i am not falling for her sad face she closed her hand and formed a fist instead and smiled mockingly at me.  she turned her attention to her group. one of them, a boy of about thirteen, had somehow captivated this young audience.  he is regaling them with his stories and the other five were really so engrossed except for the girl who tried to beg from me. she listened with an incredulous face.  all of a sudden, she pinched the storyteller hard on the boy's left forearm. 

" OUCH !!! "  the boy shouted in alarm and rained curses and expletives on the girl.  he even raised a fist at her that made the girl to scamper away.

" that's for telling us those tall tales, " she shouted back, " your "Ouch" is the only truth you mentioned this morning! "


while on the bus home i thought of what the girl had said.  it's true.  many times we are lost in words.  when we communicate we tend to rain words on the person we are communicating with.  we flood them with unnecessary things.  what could be said in two or three words, we try to say in twenty.  most times, this tendency for verbiage  causes miscommunication and misinterpretation.


this is why i'm ending this story now.  something might be lost in translation ...