Duality

Thème: FouleOverlapping circles

par lightspeedchick

“One thing with having lived your whole life in the same city, is that you keep running into people and wondering where you know them from. I swear it happens to me once a day”, I tell my colleague as we are sweetening our morning drinks at the coffeeshop.

– You know that guy? – Yeah, but I have no idea where from. All I know is that it was a positive encounter.

When I lived in Sweden, I remember often seeing someone on the street that I thought I recognized, only to immediately realize that it couldn’t possibly be them, because everyone I’d ever known was on another continent. It was always a lonely realization.

In Montreal, things are the opposite. A fellow blogger recently directed me to an online running forum. There, I bumped into an old swing-dancing friend of mine. Bonnie immediately invited me to a swing party
that I thought Nika, a blogging friend and ad producer, would enjoy. As it turns out, Nika had shot a spot starring Bonnie, an actress.

Reconnecting with Bonnie, my friend-from-swing-and-now-from-running, led me to return to dancing after a two-year absence, and there I locked eyes with someone I recognized. As he crossed the floor to meet me, I wondered, Oh God, who is that? Game Developer’s Association maybe? But then he said, “Hey MJ! It’s Michaël, from Aikido! Remember me?” Not really. And now it seems you’re Michaël-from-Aikido… AND swing.

When Patrick and I used to get asked how we knew each other, we would joke about whether it would be easier to explain what a blog is, or Ultimate frisbee, our two common circles.

(And of course, just to confuse things even more, I’ve occasionally run into swing dancers on the Ultimate field).

Though it’s sometimes confusing, recognizing people like that makes me feel anchored, connected. It reminds me that I am part of all these overlapping communities, and ultimately of the great community that is the city, and that’s a lovely feeling: the feeling of being right at home, because that’s what it ultimately is.

And I just remembered, about that guy at the coffeeshop: I interviewed him for an art director position last year, and was really impressed with him. But he wanted too much money. So that’s how I know him.

For now, anyway.

With the same theme:

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First entry

1108 days ago