What can you see in an instant? what kind of stories can be observed in an instant? while driving down the road the other day these questions became more important. we often fail to notice how many vivid and interesting stories take place right outside our car windows as we drive through the city. The time of day is irrelevant, the only important preface is the area this scene takes place and the respective culture that comes along with it. Bellaire Blvd. is southwest Houston’s unofficial Asian town. To call it “china-town” would only be half correct with every other shop being a pho or bhan-mi restaurant. The cultures that come along with these demographics are a normally a very educated, wealthy, and generally prideful “high brow”. Families expect children to gain success and those struggling are generally looked down upon. Keeping these roots in mind we come to the aforementioned scene.

Approaching a stoplight in Houston traffic is usually not the fastest experience, anyone can tell you there is more than enough time to notice a thing or two about all the stories crossing together on the other side of that window. The first thing that calls for my attention is the person standing next a bus stop, middle aged man of oriental decent. He was not sitting under the cover of the bus station, safe from the endless drizzle of light rain that often comes from Houston’s unpredictable weather. The reason for his pained expression was thought to be clearly caused by the weather, the reason for him bearing said weather was still a mystery. As another second passes and we get closer the bus stop comes to view, everything begins to get a bit clearer. What I thought at first to be random items of trash keeping the man from his seat was actually a homeless man sleeping on the bench. My mind naturally feels empathy for them both and doesn’t equate the situation as having a victor. Then, as another second passes and a few feet go by, I see the homeless man is not asleep. His eyes are open, in the direction of the man standing in the rain, and his expression is surprisingly smug. As if keeping this man from his seat is a victory, and from the look of his situation there have not been many of those lately. With one more second rolling by and the man in the rain directly next to us, the complexity of his torment becomes more clear. Not only is he in the rain unable to sit at the bus stop, his expression is more than that of inconvenience. Was is being at the bus stop itself that hurt his pride? That the man keeping him from his seat was just adding insult to injury? Realizing these assumptions are based on the expressions of a man standing outside in the cold rain but my mind cannot stop connecting dots and putting pieces together. As the last second of this scene rolls over and we leave these 5 seconds in the past, we make the light and move on with our lives. Never forgetting how the stories intertwining around us are never ending, we only have to take time to observe them. Who doesn’t have 5 seconds?