I tie the final knot on my left New Balance and shuffle out the back door, greeted by dripping humidity. It’s one of those classic Georgia August days when the air is so thick you are certain it will rip open any minute and leave you drenched in putrid, hot rainwater. That’s not quite its medium, but the effect is the same.

           I continue down my driveway swatting at no-see-ums, ducking beneath a beautiful spider web, and heading for the main road. I’ve made the walk many times, but today I notice the difference in my attitude towards my co-inhabitants of 1420 S Milledge Ave. Every object is friend or foe. The microscopic bugs are pests, annoyances with no place in my world, enemies of my being. “What good do they bring to the world? What is their role?” I ponder. Then, I consider the spider web – its architect surely a menace – but its structure wholly my greatest ally, united against the same force. For my bane is the spider’s greatest boon. Our relationship, in this instant, is symbiotic, as my repudiation for the invisible bugs scatters their flight into the very trap built the night prior. I imagine the spider to wake the coming evening and unknowingly be filled with immense gratitude for whatever controlling force brought her dinner.

           Once reaching the road, I continue my stroll through the less busy side-streets of Athens, passing tiny brick homes with landscapes groomed and untidy, grasses of Bermuda and monkey. Then ahead to my left, like a pirate long bound to sea, my eyes catch a young woman and with her, a small bouncing ball of fur. Indeed as I near the woman my greatest hopes have been confirmed – a bi-blue merle Shetland sheepdog.

           My own dear Sheltie (and my best friend of 15 years), Skye Mista Guvnah Abernathy, passed away just a month ago, making this meeting bittersweet. But the young pup greeted me with excitement, intelligence, and the humility in friendship that only dogs possess. I begin to ponder the lessons we could learn from these animals if we cast aside our pride and embraced their ability to teach us. How loyalty would be increased, joy multiplied, and pettiness demolished. With a final goodbye I move on to continue my newfound dogless life and find within me an undefined emptiness.

           Continuing onward to my place of work I indeed see the very threat I anticipated – ominous storm clouds forming in the western sky.

Surely this is indicative of our own society as well: the cloud begins as just a small apparition, a tiny conglomerate of moisture, but then it begins to grow and increase in size and dominion, until it commands all its subsidiaries to fall. Down they go unto the soil below them – rain. At times violent, at times peaceful, but always sudden and unwelcome to some, while long-awaited and refreshing to others. From it comes definite good – petrichor, nutrition, and drinking water – but the act itself is neutral. Group-think too begins as a simple idea until followers and enthusiasts catch the trend and make it a movement. It becomes cool or even necessary to be cool, and all the cool kids join the party until any dissenting opinion or lifestyle is ridiculed and outcast. But from this comes good as well, for perseverance develops personality, character, faith, and a belief that all will work out for the better.

           As I return home completing my loop I am soaked –in sweat from the onset, and rain from the storm. But as I close my door I turn to take it all in – petrichor prevails.

 

Written for an English assignment at the University of Georgia. A narrative from a walk.