Two nights ago, at the Amy Winehouse tribute concert in Eastbourne, I was freezing. I definitely underdressed for the UK. So as she finished a song I headed to the snack bar for a cappuccino. When I moved to return to my seat, I made soft eye contact with a man. It was soft on his end too.

His face and body were grossly misshapen. The wheelchair was huge, just like him. The fellow’s face was swollen, creating a circle rather than an oval.

I sat down and felt the sadness. It must be a life far more complex than mine.

As “Amy” rolled through song after song, the gentleman by the snack bar kept returning to my mind. At the end of the concert I knew I wanted to talk to him, with no idea of what I wanted to say. I walked towards where he was sitting.

The man was gone. (Sigh)

***

This morning, back in Ghent, I sat in the waiting room of Solidaris, a company that provides health care for people in unusual situations – like me!

An electronic sign scrolled through messages and images. One really hit me … and then it was gone. But I knew it would come back.

After assuring a young woman sitting across from me that I was about to take a picture of the sign rather than her, I poised with my phone. And my time came:

Zorg and Meer is a health aid store, providing people with wheelchairs, walkers, canes and lots more. Look at those two dancing! What a symbol of “You and me”.

No doubt the fellow doesn’t have the energy of the woman but they were together in the dance.

***

We’re all so different from each other

And so the same

Let’s discover the human being at the next table