I saw a woman sitting in a chair. Outside. By her front door.
I thought, "How does this young woman have so much time during the week, in the middle of the day, to sit by her front door?"
As I got closer, the thin, tan, long haired woman, I realized, was a 94 year old wrinkled, toothless old lady.
Sitting outside of the door of her 1940's aluminum single wide trailer.
By the side of the road.
Between two lanes of blacktop and the swamp.
As I drove a few miles further, I saw another woman.
Sitting in a chair. Outside. By her front door.
I thought, "How is she going to sell anything at her gift boutique, all decorated for fall, by sitting at her front door?"
I wondered if the woman outside of the trailer had ever been to her shop.
It was in an old, old town.
By the side of the road. That had been passed over by the construction of the new Interstate.
About 15 miles down the road, I reached "civilization".
The Loop shopping center - Old Navy, Michaels, BedBath & Beyond. You know the type. Any city, anywhere.
And maybe 20 miles away, the Outlet Mall.
Calvin Klein.
DisneyWorld Casting. No, really. Disney World. Orlando.
The two lane blacktop turned in to 8 lanes.
The boutique in the old town turned into - well, I don't know what to call it.
And the two women, sitting peacefully at their front doors, were replaced by rushing, anonymity.
I wondered if word had even gotten to the lady in the trailer - did she know?
Twenty miles is a long way to walk to find out that DisneyWorld had 'changed our world'.
And even further to go for Calvin Klein on sale...
Which IS real? Which IS placing value on what is important?
People NOT touching other people. No one greeting anyone. Encased in cars, traveling on impersonal roads that tell us when to come and go, not allowing us to even interact in our cars. Pulling into fields of asphalt to store our cars while we enter a store, not being greeted, to find our own way, pay for money that is automatically deposited into an account somewhere, taken out somewhere by a plastic card swiped across a plastic box, while we throw our plastic bags into our plastic trunk and drive off to hit a plastic button to open our plastic garage door, drive in, and shut the door behind us.
...which is real - I know, both are real, but in just a few short miles, I saw they both existed in the same world.
Take a moment and choose to sit on your porch, go outside.
Go sit outside of your front door, and welcome the world.
Just for one day. Try it. Let both exist in the same world, before we loose one world all together...
Natalie.
