Liminal Spaces and Identities

There it was, the Eiffel Tower in all its ordinariness. Having no one to share my lack of excitement, I marched the short walk from the station towards the tower deeply lost in internal conflicts and thoughts of my past. “How much you pay?” yells a young, fit Senegalese curio seller who was a former hotel manager. Startled, I laughed and responded “How much you sell”? Five Euros for a key ring was worth seeing the excitement and happiness of this young man’s sale shown by his impromptu dance and joyful singing. A feeling I am all too familiar with came back to me. The feeling of ‘home’ in Zimbabwe and South Africa where vendors struggle day in and day out within a context of high unemployment to make a measly amount for their struggling families. Yet they manage to remain hopeful by cherishing each single success of everyday. The true price I paid experiencing my fractured self in Paris: uncertainty, insecurity, loneliness.
Strangely, paying the price of this cocktail of emotions enlightened notions of universal moments and a shared humanity within me. This friendly character asked me how I could be so glum on such a day of sunshine, making space for our stories to flow like a calming stream in spring.
Our stories and universal moment, though experienced separately, allowed our divisions to be transcended to the extent that belonging, compassion and happiness was the result. This was a place of freethinking and higher state of consciousness. It brought us together and made us the same. Here, everyone becomes I.
It then dawned on me that I not only fell in love, I allowed myself to be naked that day. As James Baldwin explains, love takes off our masks we don in fear, allowing us to grow through adventurous journeying and meaning-making. I reclaimed my heart and was able to give and experience human compassion by being naked. I opened up my soul to a ‘stranger’ who experienced and assisted me in exploring my spirit, thoughts, fears and dreams allowing me not only to become the artist and writer I am today but to continue travelling with a new zest for life and recovered sense of self. I said good bye, but not forever, as the key ring reminds me to ask “How much you pay” today?