eyes .

Miercoles, 26 de noviembre


Today was the last day of my seguridad ciudadana clase, well actually my last day standing walking through the edificio of la escuela de gobierno y gestion publica. Sighing with relief at the completion of the nearly done semester I suddently felt my eyes, like magnets, becoming attracted to all that surrounded me. The building with bright yellow paint, old 19th century architecture. The one I once called feo. The creaking, old, dark, wooden stairs that I had always run up in my haste. The sharp sweet smell of disgusting cigarettes lazily floating in the damp air near the copiador. I had so habitually walked through this school without giving any attention to it. I probably had looked at it a few times but intentionally decided in its ugliness not to pay anymore attention to it. But today, today something hit me and my eyes were open to this strangely beautiful run-down building that was my academic home for 4 months. As I walked out of the massive wooden doors my heart secretly waved goodbye.

I walked to the right, as I always did, towards the San Martin Metro station. The construction that was there when I first came, the construction site that forced people to detour onto the street, yes that same one that nearly made me get run over by a bus, was still there. The same sounds of jack hammers, the same paint and dust covered construction workers with eyes that wandered. As I crossed the street, I saw the same sight I had always seen. The long line of unhappy looking Santiaguinos waiting to get home in the hora of suckiness and tacos, aka. 5pm-8pm. Oh Transantiago. I made my way towards the open mouth that would led me "under the skin of Santiago" into the metro station, but as I did, I heard something that I had never heard before--or possibly had, but never had noticed it. It was the loud deep clanging of the church bells of the bright orange Catedral San Martin. I stopped abruptly and just stood there staring a the massive church, listening and listening to the bells that roared while a pack of pigeons flew chaotically over my head. Time seriously seemed like it stopped and people seemed to stop. I noticed a few suit-cladded Chileans looking at the Catedral too. I looked back at the Catedral, ella que nunca yo había visto por tanto tiempo. It was old and significant in the Santiaguino urban landscape. It had massive and smooth pillars that soared high up and meet with the edge-filled features. Huge wooden doors welcomed its visitors. Above the door was a metal star with rays shooting out from its sides. The steeple sat high above and on top of that was a metal, near black, cross with rays emitting out from the circle that was in the middle of the cross. It was simple, but beautiful.

The first time I passed through this part of Santiago central I only fixed my eyes on the dinky sprinkler they called a fountain in front of the Catedral. I often laughed to myself at how sad that fountain was. But behind me loomed this massive structure. The thoughts of how I had critized Santiago for its lack of Latin American flavor rushed back into my mind and a voice in my mind poked me and said, well here you go, Latin flavor.

Somehow all of these things reminded me of God. How it takes a massive ringing bell to make us notice the grandeza and belleza of God, or merely His presence. How we walk by everyday, knowing vaugely that God is with us . But we forget to just stop and look at Him, beholding Him for who He is. We often, like I did many times with the dinky fountain, look at our surrounds and critize the lack of this or that, critize the dinkiness of things. God forgive me. Help me pause more to behold Your majesty and beauty.

I walked towards the metro station, more slowly than normal, pesnando en estas cosas. I pulled out my 100 pesos and gave it to the Chinese woman who laways stood in front of Santa Ana at this time. And she gave me in return a friend MSG packed spring roll that was her source of material bienestar. As she handed it to me, for the first time I looked at her face, at her eyes as I said "Gracias". I walked down the stairs wondering how my days would have been if I payed this much attention to everything around me. But no regrets. God give me eyes.