Passed a man eating noodles with chopsticks. He was sitting on a heavily
weathered wooden bench, looking out at the scummed pond. He paused
briefly to pull up his collar against the autumn wind, and hunched back
in to his container.

He was the loneliest looking man I've ever seen, though I can't say why.
His eyes were normal, there were no particular lines at his eyes or mouth.
Just a young, average looking white guy, eating noodles in the park. I think
maybe it's just the normalness he gave out. This guy... this guy was maybe
the mainstream. Under all the hype of what it's supposed to be, this is the
guy that doesn't just buy into it, he lives it. That life of must see TV and
SUV and maybe one VD scare but everything's really OK.

And I think, maybe, he's the only one who really does that. Consciously,
that is.

The rest of us are all fucked up, even if we don't know it, but I don't think
that guy is. I think he's really just average in every way. Never wakes up
screaming, never raped anybody, never been beaten too hard. Exercises, but
doesn't get all fucked up about it, you know?

He never walks down the street convinced he's passed the apotheosis of
whatever eating noodles in the park.

But I can't shake the feeling. I *know* he's the one. He's the guy we're all
supposed to be, and he has no idea.

'cause if he knew, he wouldn't be. But then, if he doesn't know, how is he
supposed to rise up and show us all the way?

What happens when the zeitgeist mutates?

Will he?

Will he be scared when it happens? Or just puzzled?

*