Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses, which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

With time comes the satisfaction of carrying a more defined identity, a masterwork chiseled slowly by each passing life moment and the constant traffic of thoughts; whole sections demolished, restructured, and rebuilt at the whim of a changed opinion, a faltering conviction, a new revelation. From a blank wilderness, the face of a city emerges. A conglomeration of opinions, beliefs, tastes, held together by a subtle undefinable quality, the surface proof of which we call a personality. Yet no matter the strength of the foundation or the apparent aesthetic quality of the skyline from a distance, it remains a malleable quality, shaped by so many prodding moods and memories leaving their damage behind, the way so many footsteps erode a city along well-traveled paths. They provide the undertones and peculiarities we call a character, the leaking tunnels, the pot-hole ridden streets, the chatter and the smells that define a neighborhood. They are the subtle imperfections tucked behind the shimmering glass surfaces of a courteous smile that really make one person different from the rest. Like so many languages cluttering the air, communicating and confusing...

Well-known moods afflict a person as surely as the tides of an undulating crowd afflict certain sections of a town.