On my way to work, running late, a hug stopped me in my tracks. My frantic pace slowed as I noticed two people in a long solemn hug. Time stood still for them as they held each other - was this a long goodbye? With not much time to process, I carried on with my day, as thoughts of my own long goodbyes intermittently drifted through my already occupied mind.
On my way home, I had almost put that hug in some inaccessible corner of my mind, late for a Friday but usual by my standards any other day; what was I rushing to anyway. There it was, another hug. This one felt like a long-awaited hello, as the two went round and round in their performative embrace, two main characters serving as an aberration in an otherwise crowded sea of mindless commuters.
I’d witnessed an end at the beginning and a beginning at the end of today.