A quiet chat in a Seattle cafe made me see my own city differently

I was at Victrola Coffee on 15th Ave, and a man named Henry at the next table asked if he could borrow my pen. We got talking, and he told me he'd been walking the same three block route to work for seven years. He said, 'You stop seeing the buildings after a while, you just see the time.' It made me realize I do the same thing, just rushing past places without really looking. Do you ever have a moment in a shop that makes you slow down and notice things?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_fisher241mo ago

Oh man, that Henry guy nailed it. I realized the other day I've been driving past the same weird little garden gnome in someone's yard for probably five years, and I only really saw it last week (it's wearing a tiny raincoat, which is amazing). I think my brain just autopilots through most of my own neighborhood, which is pretty sad when you think about it. A good chat in a coffee shop is sometimes all it takes to shake you out of that fog.

young.kim1mo ago

Right? It's wild what we miss on autopilot. That gnome sounds awesome though.

fiona9851mo ago

Yeah, pat_fisher24 is right about that autopilot feeling. Makes you want to just stop and look around for a minute.