Lost & Found Beauty

Imagine you're walking down the street. Perhaps you're engaged in your usual routine...or perhaps you're just trying to survive the daily commute to work or school. All of a sudden, something catches your eye. Maybe it's a post-it-note stuck to something, a scrap of paper attached to the gum underneath your shoe. Maybe it's someone's half finished crossword with every word misspelt, or maybe it's just a piece of a photograph or shopping list. Whatever it is, whatever form it takes, you're given a glimpse into someone else's world for just a moment. Something captures your imagination and you find yourself wondering: who wrote this and why?

I think this website is amazing: http://www.foundmagazine.com/index.php?fuseaction=finds.home . It's just random scraps of paper, photographs, postcards or shopping lists, found by people that seem to arouse one's interest...especially since some of them are so damn mysterious. Some of them, however, seem universal; we could have written the note ourselves. Perhaps it reminds us of something we would have written as a child or when we were once in love. Whatever the case, I find this site a worthy link to add to this blog. My reasoning is as follows:

Firstly, I've always liked Fortune Cookies, although I never liked reading Horoscopes. Secondly, I know how beautiful or poignant or just plain unnerving even a small piece of a story can be...even if it's just a single line or a poem like this famous one by Ezra Pound:

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

THE apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Thirdly, when I was in highschool and even sometimes in university, I used to place secret notes in and in-between library books. I'm not sure how the habit started or what inspired me to do something that was essentially so 'weird'...but that's what I'd sometimes do. I would often write cryptic things like: "I bet you dream in animation?" or "Would you like to?" or "Go and do it TODAY not tomorrow TODAY!". I realise this could have been a little impulsive if some deeply disturbed person happened upon one of my notes after fantasising about killing someone, but I took it on good faith, that nothing like that would happen. Anyhow, one day, a study-buddy of mine found one of my notes and it said "I'd like to get close enough to smell your hair. You're beautiful". I should mention at this point, that she was not feeling particularly beautiful or fragrant and had been incessantly whinging about a messy breakup and yet that silly note made her smile, look over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching her, smile again and secret the note in her pocket.

I guess my point is slow in coming...but here it is. Fragments of thoughts and stories; glimpses into people's lives is something just as beautiful to stumble across in the urban sprawl as something aesthetically pleasing.