I love watching stories come and go in this colorful life I’m passing through. Each encounter with another life is so interesting, though I know not one morsel of truth about some of these other human beings. Creating stories is what I do, and one of my favorite pastimes is sitting and watching colorful people passing in and out of the neighborhood auto shop. Many of us are in our golden years, but still love every minute of the time we have. So we’re counting every tick and tock of time passing by as we wait for our car repairs. 

My focus in today’s story fell upon a woman in pink, running her office affairs out loud in this tiny customer waiting room. In the midst of layered tensions from other customers brimming over from their own frustrations – the high cost of maintaining a car, the frustratingly long waiting times, and the short-tempered customer service rep, in addition to everything else, listening to this lady’s conversation was the last thing we wanted to do.  

But, back to the woman in pink… so stately, hair coiffed, stylish even in her comfy, short mumu and flip flops, toes manicured to perfection. Her total presence shouted, “I’M  A BOSS LADY; NOW TAKE IT ALL IN!”  We had little interest in what was going on with her or her staff, but she made sure we heard every word. As the time painfully ticked by, the pink lady’s alter ego crept to the surface. Her pacing, fidgeting, and piercing eyes led to what turned out to be her sudden urge for a puff; I watched it overtake her.  With the healthiest green juice she could buy in her right hand, she darted outside, lit up quickly with her left hand, then inhaled like a seasoned pro, taking pride in each deep intake of smoke; every unhealthy puff scorching her lungs to destruction, then washing down her green juice. What a conundrum! 

There are a million life stories out there, but I’m most inspired by the comings and goings of the ordinary ‘Joes’ and ‘Josephines’ out there doing life as they manage the frustrations of just waiting. Thanks to modern technology, however, I can simply write as I secretly observe a passerby’s story that I arbitrarily choose to concoct. And now I wonder how many stories have been created about ME. 

Our multifaceted lives are compilations of many little stories that create one complex person as viewed by others through 3-D prism glasses that do not give a clear and honest view. That view is colored by layers of prejudgment, prejudice, limited knowledge, and understanding. 

But, as a devoted Watcher, I relish taking every opportunity to use the outer human core that I see to create an inner human story of my own choosing.