Something int'restin happened when I left the house to go play pool last night. It was 'bout 7:10 and, as I hesitated to close the front door *did I have my keys/tokens/wallet/i-pod on me?* I noticed a couple a people (a man and a woman) across the street, dressed kinda funny, like orthodox jews or sumthin, standing next to a car on the 'no parking' side of the street, and they seemed to be looking towards me, or at least towards my house *there's an election goin on right now in Ontario - maybe they were promoting a candidate?*
On closer observation, I also noticed the really intense look on their faces, and though they were definitively not looking at each other - they were looking towards my house - they both seemed to be having a lot to say ... they definitively were talking. Next I notice the're holding onto a book of some kind - not pamphlets. Noticed again the intense look on their faces and I finally get it.
They were prob'ly some islamic folks, caught in the middle a nowhere, travelling, you know, and got stuck in the middle a nowhere at prayer time (5 times a day, I think). There's a mosque just 2 blocks away, but their clothing did not look like those of the people I've frequently seen walking in that area in the early evening, Their intense look, their probable facing-towards-Mecca, lead me to believe the truth nature of the situation.
Took prob'ly less than 20 seconds, from the time I first noticed em to the time I realized what was what, and then came the thought of the gulf of dif'rences between people in my community ... Here I am going to my one fairly innocent outing for the week, with a book on the Beetles in hand, installing and starting up my i-pod's earphones, making sure I've got my tokens for the public transit, and these folks are standing next to their car, in the middle a nowhere to do their '5-times-a-day' prayer thing. Also very aware of the fact that I am most likely to come across some most arrogant passengers on the bus (some very Jamaican - read: 'the-world-owes-me' kinda individuals) while on my way to play pool with other aging gay guys and gals. It's quite sumthin living in this city!