Stranger Echoes

So I was struck again by the thought that, though there are so many people in the world, no matter where we go, we find people who remind us of someone else. I know this is not a new thought but it is a thought that strikes my heart and mind alike. I think the thing I find most fascinating about it is how little it matters to us to meet the person who resembles our distant friend. We sit and marvel and dwell in our memories. We look at this stranger who has pulled so strongly on our thoughts, and we wish the conjoured illusion was real; that the mirage was a true oasis. This nameless stranger sits, content in there own little world, unaware of what they have wrought in ours.

It is an ache; and as we think about this other person, we say; "I should really call so-and-so." And then, of course, 90% of the time we do not. We are too busy. We are too distracted by our moment in time, that we allow it to slide away. But even though the thought has vanished, the ache awoken in our heart by this stranger for our forgotten friend remains. There is no patch for it, no cure. It is something that can only be fulfilled by the person in question.

The piece that follows was written in an airport, as I was struck by the thought, though this post is inspired by another person and another memory in another place. The essence of it remains, and I ask of you, my friends, the next time this thought strikes you; do not allow it to slip away. Call upon this forgotten friend in the name of a vague, yet familiar stranger.


Life is echoes
Faces like memories
Alike
Yet bold distortions
Visions that tease a tempered mind
Made feverish by hope.
Voices pass on a wind,
Tones and words
Ghosts of friends left behind
That ask us to recall them.
We're presented a sea
Of vague yet familiar faces
That push and prod
Our memories of the past
And make us wonder
What if...
Was that...
Until the echo fades
And we see,
And doubt takes hold.
Then, the echoes fade,
The strangers pass on
Forgotten,
Gone with the face of a
Friend
Whom we have never met.
We do not even say goodbye
As memory's replaced
By the harsh reality;
We are alone.
The moments tick by,
Seconds pass
Our gaze wanders
Til
Eyes meet
And through their eyes
We see
We are
A vague yet familiar stranger