Juxtaposition

I was eavesdropping today near a market vendor. The man selling little necklaces with strange charms on them was talking to a potential buyer, a young boy. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he was trying to "get down" to the boy's level, to connect with him on some common ground.

"You ever whittled a piece of wood before? That's all I started with; just a knife and a piece of wood."

I looked at the boy, saw his unenthused look and his mp3 player, the modernity and technology of the boy seemed to threaten the old vendor. He was so clueless, and ironically salesmen are supposed to be intuitive to the desires of capitalist's pawns. It was amusing and sad to watch the obvious disparity between the old man and young boy. One was probably trying to find a mother's day gift, the other just trying to make a living; neither really coming up successful.

You see a lot of people go through a marketplace in a day. Young couples you would have never guessed would be together, kids with blue ice-cream smeared across their face, gold-diggers, old guys with brutal comb overs. You witness people fighting over whether they should buy spaghetti or linguini, and brave singers trying to prove themselves to the tune of "Wonderwall".

There are arrivals and departures, and sometimes I feel like I'm standing in the middle of it all with a top hat on telling the bearded woman that she's on in 5 minutes, and ushering the clothed elephants backstage.