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epiphany

After 12 years (325 credit hours, 100+/- classes, 4+/- degrees--take your pick) of school, I wrapped it up tonight. Up until the mid-class break tonight, I had yet to figure out what it all means. Go figure that it would come to me at the final hour.

I'm standing outside, leaning against a wall, smoking. Two women stand directly in front of me, signing to one another. Neither can hear, but they appear to be communicating no less effectively than I do. I admire their skill and consider the implications of being heard without being heard. The quiet is refreshing, almost profound, when one of the women, blank-faced, no hesitation, no apparent sense of shame, passes gas--no, she doesn't pass gas, she straight up farts. The two women continue to sign without pause. I wonder what my role in this is, whether the windier of the women reckons that where there once was none, there is now sound, and that I have heard it. Somehow, I think, this is a metaphor for my life thus far, and I'll get back to you on it.