The Life Of A Vendor.

His life is circumstantial. Untouched with his own hands, he never had a choice. He was not the creator. If he did have an alternative, he was unaware of how to break his surroundings and live the life he catered to everyday. His pregnant mother looked into his soul and saw opportunity. She saw his big eyes, his cute face and she saw a means to an end. Or at least enough to make it through another day. For them it truly was another day- another dollar. So she sent him to the streets after coaching him to be persistent and offer everyone he crossed something they never really needed. She told him that selling was everything. Soon to be a brother and being the man of the house he was meant to provide. Responsibility was thrust upon him, yet another circumstantial incident. Product in hand and the words of his mother playing in his head he wandered the the streets every night. Entering restaurants, standing outside bars, prowling the uneven sidewalks for any traveling souls who may feel any amount of sympathy. Getting lost in his oversized eyes was more than easy for them. It paid. So his childhood was lost to a job. When he turned 17, he was so sick and tired of the rocky paths and late night shifts he took his circumstantial life and turned a new leaf.
It was time to spend his days on the beach, in the hot sun. You can’t shake circumstance though. His background, all the past events of his life, all the incidences and occurrences, they had all led to this moment. And although he now spent his days in the shining sun and on the heated sand he was still a salesman. So he wandered the beach all day long. Passing resort after resort. Tourist after tourist. Gazing into the phenomenon that his life never was. It wasn’t long into his 18th year he realized how deep envy had settled into his bones. Jealousy for what he never had and resent for the world he was born into were beginning to invade his heart. Seeing these people living hollywood lifestyles, drinking fancy drinks, wearing the latest fashion, sporting the coolest trend, he couldn’t help but wonder what this life was truly like.
Year in and year out, each passing like a moment lost in time he kept the same job. Admiring others and dreaming about their lives. Longing to be a part of their world and removed from his own. Feeling so close and miles away all at once. He wished as he bartered over cheap silver and imitation sunglasses, with the same routine, same lines, same tactics. It was all a performance. So rehearsed that thinking was minimal. It always ended the same way, both vendor and tourist walking away, smile on face, cash or item in hand, believing that the other had just been ripped off, so proud of their deceit. As he performed each day he watched the people in the resorts. Making orders, demanding this, wanting that, and the whole while getting their way. He watched them enjoy their selfish cravings. He saw their smiles plastered on their faces, so perfect they looked like plastic. But as he grew wiser he noticed their smiles would melt after a period of time. He heard their requests turn into complaints and frustration. He heard the tone in their voices as they grilled into the employees as if they were so much better than them. He saw their happiness as temporary. And he started to step back from the glass he had once watched behind.
It took 30 years for this vendor too realize what was truly happening. It took him 30 years to see what the men and women in the resorts were really like. 30 years for envy and bitterness to fade away. 30 years to see that what he had was something they would never covet. He had everything they didn’t. He had freedom, love, contentment. And for them nothing was ever good enough. Nothing ever satisfied. They had tasted what money could buy, but they were missing everything it couldn’t. Their happiness was never joy. Just another emotion that would come and pass when boredom settled in. Now at 48 this vendor holds the world. He’s tasted love, he’s felt joy, he’s experienced pain. Contentment is his middle name and his story is one that will change lives. These are the circumstances that have formed him. For the bitterness of yesterday had fallen from his skin and the freedom of today made its home in his heart.