As I grow accustomed to the city, I stop looking at the little things around me. I walked past the woman that I rent from and babysit for yesterday without noticing; she stopped me, and only then did I realize that I had been staring straight ahead not taking in any of my surroundings, only trudging off to work without a second thought. On my daily Metro rides to work, too, I notice less and zone out more. I don't know if it's habituation of my situation or mere end-of-the-semester fatigue. But Sunday I saw this: a man on a bicycle, a normal sight in Paris, but wearing a white helmet covered in multi-colored polka dots. So rarely do cyclists wear helmets past the age of 10, especially in Paris, especially in the city. What most people call normal, I call insanity. How could you possibly think that it is safe to ride through the city where everyone drives like a maniac? You vs. car, who do you think will win that one? How could you possibly stand a chance? No matter, this was a young man, probably just a few years my elder, and he was sporting his helmet with a serious Parisian look and it made me want to hug him. I would have all but forgotten it, yet twenty minutes later, riding the bus, staring out the window, I saw it again. This time, hanging in the window of a bicycle shop, the exact same white helmet covered in multi-colored polka dots. A sign, I decided. To keep paying attention. To keep seeking new sights and new ways of seeing.
This weekend, as long as the strikes don't stop me, I will go to Chartres for a day to see somewhere new. I am thinking of registering for a drawing and painting class next semester, a way to speak French more often and to learn a new skill. More than anything, it'd be a new way of seeing, perhaps something I need these days when it is just so easy to walk, eyes towards the ground, trying to ignore the gray skies and thus missing the blue ones (for when they appear, they are brilliant but how little we look when how rarely they occur!).
It is strike season in France. The taxi cab drivers, the truck drivers, some of the trains, maybe soon all of the trains, the museums, these are all the ones that are on strike now. But more to come, it seems. The newspaper this morning had a headline, "Santa Claus is a striker." I am doubtful, but it seems that Christmas will be made more difficult if the trucks won't deliver presents, if travelers can't reach their families, and so on and so forth. Can the reindeer strike too, for hire wages, better hours? That is something I'd like to see.
