I was in the Frankfurt airport train station waiting on
my train. Sleepy and hungry after a trans-Atlantic flight, I bought hot tea and
a pain au chocolat at a kiosk. I left
the main part of the train station and wandered into a shopping mall. It was a
Sunday morning about 7:00am. The city was still asleep, so I had plenty of
choices of places to sit and have my breakfast. During the time that I ate, I
only saw seven other people.
Soon after the young couple disappeared from the mall,
another couple—much older than the young Asians—strolled into the atrium area. They
were definitely not in a hurry, but then, why would there be a rush to get
anywhere as nothing in the mall was open. As they strolled along hand-in-hand,
I watched. They stopped and stared inside a storefront.
As I have traveled over the years I have always enjoyed
watching people. I don’t mean staring, but I do admit to some intense looking. When
I am traveling and in an airport or train station, I like to look for indicators
that will tell me something about that person. Anyone can tell if a person is
of Asian descent, but I like to study the face and guess whether they are from
Korea or Southeast Asia or the Philippines.
A couple of young Asians (Korean I guessed) sat near me, engaging
each other with the tell-tale signs of being in love. I knew that they were not
siblings by the way they gingerly touched one another. Maybe I did stare at
them because they abruptly stood up and walked swiftly away. But, remember that
I am trying to stay awake so I had to be doing something so that I did not miss
my train.
I have watched a lot of “window shoppers” in my time, but
these folks were not looking at merchandise for sale inside the store. They
were standing in front of a dry cleaners shop and just gazing inside. Why? I
don’t know, but I did not dwell on the why. I was really impressed with the “what”
they were doing. They were simply enjoying each other. They did not have to be
entertained. They did not have a destination. They were happy just being
together.
“Love does not consist in gazing at
each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
