I haven't always been like this. There was a time, as a younger woman, when I moved through the day without noticing everyone I encountered with the same eye for elements as I do now. Back then, a face was not a porthole to the inside world of men and women. The posture and carriage of a body did not reveal the food consumed, emotional baggage lugged, and the psycho/sexual energy of a personality. However, somewhere along the way, I developed these insights into people that left me feeling somewhat of a self-fulfilling prophet. I guess you could say that I began to divine precognitively, the structure and form of acquaintances and friends before I knew who they were or what they were made of.
This pinpointing skill has afforded me the luxury of getting to the heart-of-a-matter quickly when conversing with patients, as well as fresh faces and old friends. There is always this fantastical rush experienced as I plumb the depths of an individual-encountered within minutes (or more frequently than not, seconds) of a meeting. My body, consciousness, and words swirl and merge during the interface. Then, at some indecipherable, but exquisite moment, I achieve richly bright clarity (almost a psyche orgasm) which propels me into the relationship, however fleeting or lasting. It's luscious to know another body so deeply and immediately. No time is wasted with speculation or conjecture. That soul is in me (if I so choose) and then my response is directly visceral. This is how I first experienced Ian. He, I chose to let in.
Al, my lover-husband, had been in the mountains for about a week when I started film school. A fresh awareness had enveloped me in the previous year. I sensed that there had to be a method to capture on film what I was experiencing in my body and viewing through my eyes. I entered the program to confine my experiences on videotape because I knew that others must sense the same awareness as I, yet few resonated it outside the visual. Video is a universal medium to distribute one's truth. Thus, a desire to share the depth of my experiences, so that others might learn, brought me to Cornish Film School.
Convenient evening classes were held Friday and Monday evenings, with several all-weekend seminars offered by experts. This first night, Friday, I was well rested from my week's work at my acupuncture clinic, ready to jump into the material. The class rapidly filled up with the usual assortment of trust fund skaterboys (hoping to make it on the X-treme Sports Channel), pierced and tattooed "twenties" (with an axe to grind against the machine), and a few contemplative types (hoping for a little self-expression and limited distribution).
Then there was Ian. He fit none of the above categories. Like me, he squeezed into the last row, nearest the projection booth, on my right side. He carried no book bag, limiting his load to a spiral notebook and mechanical pencil (of the type preferred by Al). I noticed his pencil first; its erasure was new, its grip well worn and the pocket clip deformed slightly by using it as an oversized paperclip. Glancing towards me he spied my observations of his writing instrument and offered an assessment of its qualities.
"These things are the best...they never fail you and last forever," he whispered.
"I know," was my response. For a fleeting moment I wondered why I did not add, 'my husband uses them,' letting the thought pass when I recognized the innocent and honest intent coursing through my body. Besides, that statement would have possibly halted further conversation. I guess I was consciously withholding β my intent was to glean more conversation from this man.
Ian's face had that mix of sweetness and ruggedness I have seen in many land-centered people. That is, he looked simultaneously close to the earth, yet comfortable in his current surroundings. Once again I was washed with a spray of clarity that this man was unique and familiar in my core. I couldn't place him in my mind, but I felt him in my body. He lay his pencil down in a neat diagonal across the lines of his blank page to survey the room.
"I was never much for piercings. It seems too primitive for my rituals. But, some of the body art in this room is exquisite. Did you see the woman in the front with the jet-black hair? She was inked with a dogwood tree interlaced with an open hand. I don't understand the symbolism, but as art it is superb." Ian now looked to me for a response, turning his body slightly towards mine; he revealed dark, pooling-eyes and rich brows. His nose appeared European or North African, narrow and bridged as though chiseled from marble. His lips were thick, suggesting sensuousness, over strong teeth within an angular jaw. Olive was a shade too light to illustrate his flesh tone, but brown or black was too deep. He, or his parents, were not from here, that's for sure.
I parted my lips to respond, again sensing, this time in my belly, a shudder of familiarity (or perhaps a more physical response), but before my words left my lips the lecture had begun.
The talk was less than engaging, with the instructor providing an outline of things to come over the next nine-months. However, near the end of the class she signaled to the projection booth and introduced a film produced as a final project by two students from the previous graduating class. All films she said were done in "dyads" or "triads" for the final project. Students, she emphasized, had to experience cooperative film making before leaving school. This was "the way it is done," she said. "Don't think that you can do it all alone out there -- you can't." With those parting words the film started.
The details of the production we saw that day are unimportant (as was the film). Clearly, there was an acute amateurish quality to the whole thing, something not lost on Ian or me. As the credits rolled Ian again made contact.
"I was a bit bored with it, how about you?"
"I saw what they did, but have no idea why they did it. There was no intent in the film," I responded leaning over a bit so as not to be heard by those around us heaping praise on the work. Ian sat momentarily motionless before speaking. I sensed anticipation in my body, awaiting his next thought. It was early, 7:45 PM. I wanted to talk more and so did he. It was in his breath.
"You hungry?" was all he said.