Bua na cainte...about memories

(The Gift of Gab or The Ability to Converse)

I found myself staring at my ceiling this morning, and I remembered something-Someone-from my past. Before I moved, or any of that jazz. When I was just a kid that wanted to be happy, and enjoy his life while playing with his friends. I found myself staring at a homeless man on day, who was always smiling, even when it was raining. He was a strange man, very lengthy and shaggy. And no matter how I looked at him, he always seemed uneven. But then there was that grin, the smirk, or beaming expression upon his face whenever someone looked at him. I thought he was weird at that time, a stranger...

But the truly weird thing about the homeless man was his ability to read people. When ever someone was sad and walked past him, he say something. It was was a "Hi" or "Hope you take care", or him offering other homeless people his money when they were down. And it was when I walked past him, did I notice this ability first hand. I happened to have been hit that day, and it still stung wildly, and nearly brought me to tears numerous times. But as I walked past him, I found myself watching him smile at me. He did not beg or money or cigarettes, but instead, he stood. He loomed over me, easily topping 6'3" with wiry hair that seemed to poof out in a mane, a thick beard that was unkempt much like the rest of him. He grinned at me, before asking what was wrong.

Hesitantly, I told him and the man watched me carefully. I wonder what he had thought always too this day. But why the time I was finished, the man was thinking carefully to himself, biting his lower lip as we watched people wonder by. After a while, the homeless looked at me, and asked me a question: Why look down? Such an odd question, no? Now a-days I can answer with a scientific answer, claiming how humans use their sadness as a sign or regret or something. But back then, I was ignorant. I could not answer, and the man look down at me again, grinning. "No answer? That's how it should be." confused, I asked why, and the homeless man grinned once again. "Because, whats on the ground? Dirt and worms." I was even more confused, until the man sighed and explained it to me slowly:

"Why look down? You'd see nothing but dirty and worms. Instead, hold your head high, and you see the endless sky."

Back then, those words meant nothing to me. Back then, I was only confused and angered by the words. But as I traveled to visit the man, and home after school, I'd find myself remembering those words. And because of that, because recently I remembered them, I wanted to pass them onto you all. Why look down? Ask yourself that...I know I have too. Even if I am a hypocrite in a few things.

Why look down?

Tóg bog é ,
Blue.



P.S.:
Mo mhúirnín bán Christine, go raibh míle maith agat...