Sunday, November 12, 2006

Life's little surprises

The other day, I went with a group of people to see the movie, “Borat”. Some of them went ahead to grab some seats, while I spent my retirement fund on a box of popcorn and a soft drink. When I went inside the theatre, it was dark and there were a lot of people, so I stood there for an indecisive moment, scanning the crowd for my friends.

“Looking for someone?” said a stranger at my elbow.

“Yeah,” I responded, still searching. “I know my friends are there somewhere.” In my peripheral vision, I noticed that the stranger was still standing by my side and that he was tall.

We exchanged a few pleasantries until my friend Saif noticed my lost little self and waved to me. “Ah! There they are!” I sent the stranger a friendly smile and thanked him for standing with me so gallantly while I was looking for my group. He ended up sitting just a few seats away from me.

The next day, I got an e-mail from an ex-boyfriend: “So were you angry with me, or did you really not recognize me last night? And did you like Borat?”

Yup, that’s right. An ex-boyfriend. Whom I should have recognized – it hadn’t been that long (a few years) since I’d seen him. But that’s just not where my headspace had been.

Knowing that you’ve moved on is priceless. It was a valentine from the Universe that I really needed that day. However, it also makes me think of the song “Someone I Used to Love” by Bruce Cockburn, which I used to think of frequently when this ex and I were dating. In part, the lyrics are:

All the days we've been together
All the days we've been apart
Add up to a bunch of nothing
If I'm not still in your heart
I never want you to be
Just a page in my history
Someone I used to love

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"...while I spent my retirement fund on a box of popcorn and a soft drink."

Haha! That's a very good line.