Dec. 05, 2002 - 21:08 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

Muffled

A trip to town one cold winter's day to spend some of my hard earned cash made from running errands and passing out handbills from door to door, to see a picture show I had been wanting to see, "Captain's Courageous" perhaps or some show of that caliber. It was a dark day, cloudy and cold, not zeroish though.

I felt very grown up going into the theater around three in the afternoon to see a double feature, cartoon and newsreel knowing that I would come out from there in the night time to make my way home. That always made me feel really button popping grown up.

While I was in the theater a blanket of snow was deposited on our town. I came out in the dark, street lights were on and show window lights shone on the sidewalks, people quietly walking by. But it was as if I was suddenly struck deaf. No noise from car tires on the street, The bells on the top of street cars seemed to have a pad on their clappers and were almost not heard. The street car I was catching seemed to proceed noiselessly up the street even the doors seemed to silently open. After leaving downtown most of my journey was through a residential part of town. Out there it didn't seem that cars had used the street and all was overlaid in white. Familiar places all dressed up in pure white seemingly passing in review as I looked out the streetcar window.

At my stop the street car stopped quietly, the door opening and then gently closing behind me almost like it was fitting itself into my mood. Then the street car seemed to creep away from there. From the streetcar stop to our home was not far to walk, the arclight reflected off the snowflakes on the sleeve of my coat. I was in another world, a silent one. I was about halfway home when a streetcar headed back to town came by as if it were on rubber tires, I could tell it was a streetcar, seemingly on its very best behavior.

I was in my own little world, everything wrapped in an untouched comforter of white, the usual city noises were hardly there, smoke curling up from chimneys and somewhere were fantastic creatures there, behind bushes peeking around the corners of houses, looking down from trees. In my very own world I walked on for several blocks inhaling the joy of life and exhaling it to spread to others. I wasn't on dope, much too young. But there was a quiet euphoria and sense of peace outflowing from me. I was home in my world. Was I imaginative ? Oh yes, to the max. There was a romance on that night for me which would never come around again quite the same. Of course along the line of life there were other nights to also file in my memory, there was one entry I made about another snowy evening after I was married that came close though.

Last night in my yogiastic comtemplation of my lint filled navel I came close to once again being in that awestruck sensing of the beautiful world I live in.

Later in life I realized what set the scene for me that evening. Almost complete silence. Snow clinging to the street car bells and keeping auto tires from making noise, the only thing to be heard while on the street car was the creaking of the wooden body as it rocked along. So quiet that it seemed that each snowflake made a peep as it hit my sleeve. I had what seemed to me to be a very unique experience that maybe everyone has at one time or another. That was the night when everything was strangely Muffled . . . . . . . . .

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