ST156 ... The Fedora Hat Man - Reflected from a Street Glass-Window

On the way to a regular cafe i peeked in at a window along the street to see to my surprise what was definitely not me in its reflection. What the hell? A man in the perfect suit for an office job in the late thirties somewhere in eastern europe. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, his grey fedora hat, his quaint smirk, his eyes looked into my soul. "Hey", he said to me, "don’t be so surprised, you know damn well, you've been longing for this for eons".

"Well, yea, i suppose, but no, i don't get it". I looked back into the street, 'had it changed', i thought to myself, 'no, i don't think so', i thought deeper.

The afternoon was wet, tears from above, a light drizzle for hours now, days, i remembered. I looked back to the window, he was still there and started to talk. "I was just as bewildered as you the other day when i walked by this very window, well, i mean, the one from the side that you are on. I know this because i see the Theatre across the road, that one with the billboard in neon advertising the play playing, 'In the Theatre of the Absurd, Reality is Real'

"So what does this all mean" i asked.
"Nothing more than what it is, an illusion, time bending, a weird dream, a spec of time misplaced, whatever you want it to be, or believe it to be…. it’s up to you" pleasantly, he stated.

"What can it possibly teach me, why did this happen to me". i asked with a softer more tender voice.

And with his gentleness, he spoke, "i have learned for myself that life is an illusion but meaningful in its peculiar way. You have to go with it. It is as strange and stranger than you could ever imagine. Just let it be, follow it down, follow it up…. but follow it with your heart and your life will be miraculous. There is no ultimate plan, no savior absolute, only relative answers to keep you sane, focused, open, true………. go with it."

"Wow”, i said, “i'm without words”. So many questions and yet i need no answer. I am going to walk on. Strange, “maybe i will see you again, maybe i won't but wow, just wow, it doesn't matter”. This feels right, perfect, pure, my heart is overflowing with…., adventure, courage, serenity…..love, yes love, of and from a mystery, possibly, thee mystery, somewhere out there, in here, everywhere, who knows?

In a flash of a second a quick image of smooth bronze and sculptured form reflected itself into my brain. The glass danced in waves of blending light, with hues from somewhere else, beyond.

He had already turned back into me as i glanced a last time into the window pane and walked on.

A few years later on a miraculous trip to Wroclaw Poland from America i stumbled upon this statue in a park entitled 'Człowiek w kapeluszu Fedory - tajemnica absurdu' That was him, that was what i saw flash by in a strip of a second, off of that bending glass on a mysterious street, not all that long ago.

Fedora Hat Man - The Mystery in the Absurd

I thought to myself, ‘strange the way the mind and the world weave in and out of each other as if time is of one strand, a continuous loop’. I fell in love in Wroclaw, a long time ago, it still feels so ‘now’, time does that; ‘so strange’.

Wroclaw Square, Poland (March - maybe 1938)

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