slow down this old train

I've been thinking a lot about things that I overlook because they happen all the time in the place where I live. When you're on vacation, you are forced to stop and examine, appreciate, smell, savor, enjoy. Every little thing, when you're a traveler seems so fresh. I have pictures of No Smoking signs from Alaska and cologne ads from London in the late 90s. Why do we not stop and savor everything in life though? Life goes so fast and things change in the blink of an eye.

We should be appreciating everything that we like while it's around and while we are near it, like that cafe that I sit in to write where my friend works. It smells like heaven, they play soft music, and it feels like I'm sitting in a cafe somewhere in Europe. And I should enjoy every second of that because my friend won't always work there or maybe I'll move or have a child and suddenly have no time for cafe dwelling or (horror of horrors) they shut down or change locations. The point is, you don't know how long you have something so we should all just slow down this fast train...

Aren't we all travelers on this trip called life, anyway?

I made this video two years ago. October of 2009. Things were the same, yes. But some things are so different now. Everything was shot in a single Friday afternoon within a five block radius of my home and there is so much going on. There are so many people moving so quickly. Some are having a lazy afternoon like my friend and me, just skipping stones at the river. And then, there's a shot of adults engaged in a conversation and a child off just a little apart from them, throwing stones in the river. It's interesting because that afternoon, when my friend (who bought me that video camera for my birthday) and I went on that walk, he was encouraging me to look around with different eyes. Initially, I wasn't seeing how special these moments were. Once I opened my eyes and started to film, I saw how interesting the world around us is. Faster, Pussycat! Kill!... Kill! seems disjointed there, but it was on when we went to pick something up from the bar he manages. At the time, I thought it seemed fitting.

And I had to show off my many-in-a-row-cartwheel skills...