Pace Yourself

I’ve seen the older man walking his dog in the mornings and afternoons. I’ve watched them trudge along, slow to the point of stillness, causing passersby to always pass by. No one follows them for long. It is a reminder of how speed is for the young, how short-lived will be our ability to hustle.

Yet, this morning, I saw the man again without his dog. I barely recognized him. He rushed from the car parts store to the bakery, later he overtook me near the flower shop. I watch everyone so carefully that I knew his posture and his face, if not his pace.

In the afternoon, the man goes by, in the same shirt as the morning, but moving so slow as to hold up traffic. This time his pup is at his side. It is the pup who needs the time.

So he humbles himself to stay by the side of his elderly dog friend. Perhaps the dog is his best friend, though this gray-haired man now seems more beautiful than I could ever try to guess.

-Budapest, Hungary