A man and his young son walk along the street on a beautiful, summer day. The boy looks around in awe. He asks about the cars driving by, the flowers set in pots, and the clouds in the sky. The man is there, happy to explore the world through the boy’s eyes.
To see the bees buzzing from flower to flower, the myriad of birds flying here and there, and the clouds shaped like stuffed animals. The man is reminded of the wonder of the world. He looks to see the faces of the people passing by. He sees distracted faces. Faces of those that aren’t there.
The man and his young son continue walking, discussing the smells and sounds and sights of the world around them. The wind picks up. Between gusts, there is a calmness in the air. The calmness is fleeting. With the next squall of wind, a cloud edges across the sky, dimming the light of the day. The wind dies down as the rain begins.
Moisture fills the air and so too does urgency. As the frequency of drops increase, people begin to scatter. They run. They’re running away from the wet, the cold, the uncomfortable. All of those distracted faces aren’t distracted anymore.
They are thrust into the moment, but they still want to escape. They want to be somewhere other than where they are. They want to be dry and back to living in any moment but this one.
The man looks down at his son to see him smiling. He has the urge to run away from the rain. Like everyone else, he is conditioned to seek shelter. But not today. Today he is enamoured with the world. Today he is seeing reality from a different perspective.
When he sees his son smiling, he realizes he is smiling, too. They begin to run. Not to escape the rain, but to lose themselves in the chaos of it. They run and jump and dance in the rain. They are delighted.
As quickly as it came, the wind blows the clouds away. The sun shines as the rain falls. People are still trying to escape. With the final few drops of rain, the running stops. People slow down, their faces a mix of downtrodden and relieved.
The boy wipes water off his brow and exclaims, “Wow!”
The man and his young son walk on, still smiling.
“It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone when they get caught in the rain! Some will run with their hands over their heads, others will smile a take a deep breath while enjoying the wind.”
— Josh Waitzkin (The Art of Learning)
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