Ships passing

In the early morning hours today I was out for my constitutional. In common parlance this refers to the short walk between my abode and the place where I do the morning workout. While just leaving the property line and walking out onto the sidewalk, I looked up to the right and saw a familiar face who I partially expected to be coming by.

Have you ever been in a place where you see the same people every day (or at least with some frequency). We can become aquainted with such people, learn their habits and timings very well, and even judge our own routines and their timings based on whether or not we happen to see one another while we're on the move. The thing is that we don't have to know each other's names! These people are more often identified by their clothing, or by their routines: the guy I meet at the gym, the girl I see at the bus stop etc.

As it turns out, I do know the person who was attached to the familiar face approaching from the right, but in that context, we are two people passing like ships. Each of us has our routine and its consequent deadlines. We may not have time to stop and chat, but at least we can look out for one another on the road.