Life on the Boulevard

He's there everyday. Walking his short, little route up and down the boulevard in front of the plaza. He's the walking advertisement for one of the stores there, wearing his ridiculous shoulder placard, holding another sign and waving to the passing traffic with his free hand.

I wonder who he is and why he's there. Without fail, everyday that I go home on the bus he's walking the beat and trying to sell a product. In all kinds of weather he's a constant, even if the temperature isn't. On the weekends when we happen to drive by he is there like a robot traversing the same path, up and down waving to the passerbys.

He's not old but he looks worn. Probably in his 30s although being outdoors all the time doing an uninteresting and dead-end task would surely age anyone. He's got the frizzy, straight-haired, rocker mullet which by daily examination, seems like the only kind of style he could do anyway with that hair type. He's got a sad, resigned smile that never leaves his kind-looking face as he waves automatically to people zooming off to more important jobs and careers.

I've watched as his grassy trail turned from glossy green to threadbare yellow, finally becoming just a crooked little compacted, muddy rut bearing testament to his constant patrol. Now that it's getting warmer he's veered off his well-worn tracks to advertise on the grass next to it, no doubt to save his shoes from the melting mud. I look at his life, stamped out in a 50 foot length and wonder where he came from and why he's doing this.

As dumb and pointless his job may seem to be, perhaps he's racking up business for the little store in the plaza. Maybe he's a super rich guy who's doing this because he likes to be outside and wants a stress-free life. Who knows what his motivations and thoughts are, it could be all he could find to make ends meet. But if you think about it, we're all in the same boat. Looking at the big picture, we're pretty insignificant even though we try to make a dent in the span of our extreme finiteness. Our footprints only remain for so long until they're swept away, his are just more obvious for now.