They walk along the damp oversize side walk.
"It is amazing how random dried, residual oak leaves from fall get strewn on the path along with dainty white cherry blossom petals" Bee says, Rex Looks at her and smiles.
"And it is also amazing how you keep gazing at the concrete as if you are calculating your next step to save those poor snails"
"Amazing right? how those slimy cute creatures leave their own distinct trails of moisture amid the dampness from the rain! Reckon there'd be a few hundred of them on this boulevard? Almost as many cars as would zoom past the adjacent busy road during the day?
"Right. Busy road. We think us girlfriends are the only ones on the sidewalk past 10 pm and we have slimy intruders by the hundreds"
"Okay, we have company. Let us not calculate or count. You knew my loathe for math as a child"
"I know that story very well. You always scored all there was but you despised it all the same and why may I ask? This is a question that never occurred to me when we were kids"
"I got bored of Math. I mean, it held my interest till I cracked the problem - but then, the answer was predetermined. I didn't have much to discover there in terms of what greeted me at the bottom line. I was either right or wrong and that made me queasy. Generic things don't excite me much, so Math didn't"
"So you didn't like the predictability or the uniformity of math! revelation" Rex rolls her eyes and smiles.
"I didn't like how Mrs. D made the essays predictable either. "At the railway station" and each one of us has to write about the same hustle and bustle and same hawkers yelling themselves hoarse. When we are created with unique voices and faces, why do we step out of our way to fit in?" Bee steps out a little to accommodate a slimy friend.
"So you despise predictability. Do you consider me predictable?"
"I advocate uniqueness. I am not here to despise or judge anything...Judgement makes us very inhuman"
"I thought judgement makes us human"
"That's another way of looking at it, if you will. But if you examine humans closely, we are all unique. Even kids borne out of the same parents vary so much in their look or thought - so isn't it inhuman to think that everyone out there should confirm to what we think is right or wrong? Like we are attempting a math problem with a formula we coined for ourselves and we unfairly want to tinker with every uniqueness out there to fit our own formula?"
"So you are telling me you despise judgement?"
"I don't despise them per say, cause that might qualify as a judgement too - as we are all trying. Not everyone is wise or deep enough to understand the uniqueness of life. We are offered lessons, but then, we can only process them if and when we are ready. So I won't judge a person that is judging. I try to learn my own lesson and not judge. That's the reason I like art. It is not confined to a right or wrong like math or science. You look at it and bring your own meaning to it. Someone else is free to do the same thing as well, they bring in their own unique meaning. You could look at a scenery and look at the sky. Some one might look at the grass and derive the same awe as the sky inspires in you. So you are all right in your own right...isn't that so harmonious?"
"So logic is for losers you say?"
"No. Logic is in its place and is necessary. But life is an art. It is unique to each being that enjoys being alive and that shouldn't be confined to your logic or mine. We shouldn't shackle living into a right and a wrong...it is not black and white. It is all shades inbetween"
"That is radical"
"I see it as simple. It is as simple as it can get. If you get it that is"
"By the way...what's your take on the Xs...Did you know the Xs are getting divorced..I mean what got into MrsX? Two girls, twenty years of marriage and then this? Isn't it cuckoo?"
"Tell me this question is a red herring"
"Nope, It is not. I want you to tell me your take on this and I demand it right now. Do you think Mrs X was unhappy all along?"
"How do we know. It is her journey. May be it is an emotional void. May be there is a lack of passion, may be it is something she cannot even put into words"
Rex lets out a laugh "Did you say passion?"
"Yes. Why not? It could be that too"
"And you think lack of passion is a ground for divorce? Isn't that petty after twenty years of marriage?"
"It isn't petty and let me not taint poor Mrs.X...I am just giving you a hypothetical situation and why it is none of your business or mine. It is judgmental to think it is petty when both of us are securely married to wonderful men..who are we to determine if passion is the prerequisite of a marriage or emotional stability or even financial stability? To each their own"
"So when that actress said what she said in her women empowerment video, do you cheer her or oppose her?"
"I neither support nor oppose....every choice is unique and everyone does something only when they justify it for themselves. She could be meaning her choice in her own unique way or some other way I cannot fathom. I don't want to jump and take offense if it doesn't apply to me. I'll try to understand it if I can and try not to misunderstand if I can't. I mean, I am sure there were hoards of men who did everything she said she would do, without announcing it in a PSA, why should a woman be singled out?"
"You are judging men now"
Bee lets out a content laugh and dodges another snail on their path.
"Miss Monalisa smile - what is it that hides behind your wise smile?"
"That life is unique and it should never be slotted into a generic box of judgement. And I am a math atheist like my beloved Calvin and am not a man hater. I am a "unique" lover and I allow for people to decide for themselves by keeping my right and wrong to myself"
"So just for once tell me if I am predictable"
"Only in Coldstone" Bee smiles.
"Get over your Mint chocolate chip generics"
"And you over your plain vanillaness"
"Oh yeah? I'll try a legal substance one of these days...I want to see the vision of that bright white light"
"Don't ever try substances alright? You are standalone crazy without the help of psychedelics"
"I know - and don't tamper your uniqueness with your love for Math" Bee pushes her friend and runs.
"Watch out, lest you crush those magnificent slimy creatures out there"
"Look! we are in the shopping complex now....see how my wisdom makes your lose the sense of your surroundings?"
"Yeah right. Try being a Yogini"
"I hear it is lucrative. Let me give it a thought" Bee smiles again, her content smile.
Bee and Rex walk to the Coldstone creamery. And just in case this conversation held you so far in thinking mode, they have the summer hours up at Coldstone already in sunny California.
Post script - Please do not judge Bee or Rex. They both are conceived in my infertile imagination and don't bear any resemblance to a living or dead person....(and I made up the summer hours being effective too...so you don't find a plothole ;-)
And thus I fall prey to the Generics of life.
Grin :-D
Picture - My DSLR Mumbai Visuals - Circa 2008
