Passing

20060820 | Seattle, WA
(c) JS. Originally uploaded by Three Heavens And Hells.

Last Wednesday was strange. On our bus downtown, my co-worker Kerry and I saw the body of a man who had jumped from the bridge a few blocks from my work. According to later news reports, he must've jumped a few minutes before we passed. Cars were beginning to back up; his shoes were thrown a yard or two from where he fell.

I go beneath that bridge whenever I walk to work. He fell on his back; looking up and imagining what he must've seen before hitting the pavement is morbid, but impossible to shake.

Later that same day, as some of my play cohorts and I were waiting for practice to begin up near my neighborhood, a man approached carrying a 2-by-2 wooden box. He let the box slam to the sidewalk as soon as he passed us, then continued on his angry way. The box was filled with old cinnamon toast, cheerios, dry lasagna noodles, and canned tuna. A lady walking by scavenged the tuna pretty quick, but that was about the only good that came from that random act of aggression...besides a conversation starter: "Did you know that guy?"