I have met a wonderful friend named Fede

Last Sunday afternoon we went out driving

Listening to Keane

And drinking the sun

It was a wonderful experience to see Rosario

Going 35 miles an hour

through the speckled windshield

It was a completely different perspective

Than walking, which is the only other way I can travel in this city

Sunday afternoons are different in Rosario.

All of the shops are closed

People gather together in groups of friends and family to drink Mate

and take their kids to the park

No one is alone

And the downtown, which is usually hustling and bustling every which way

Is strangely silent

We drove everywhere

To the suburbs, down by the river, to the outskirts of the shopping center

The traffic was crazy, especially by the river

It felt like the whole city drove to spend the afternoon in the little piece of nature the city has

“On Sundays people don’t know what to do with themselves,”Fede said, as he patiently stopped for mobs of people to cross the street, “So they just get together and sit around.”

He was right

People in every which way sitting on the grass, playing with their dogs, playing soccer, watching street performers, smoking, playing guitar, selling jewelry.

Fede’s comments always stick with me

Because although they tend to be a little anti-social

They’re also very introspective and wise

He sees things a little differently

And together, we discuss people and culture in it’s different forms

As we drive and drive with no ending destination

I’m reading the visual text of the city

The architecture, the sporadic trees, the graffiti, the expressions on faces of people walking

I’m taking pictures of everything I see

Not just the impressive things

But the space in between

Pictures of the real Rosario

The interesting things

And the not interesting things

Capturing tiny moments of the stuff no one pays attention to

Streets and lights and broken beer bottles

And I start to realize that the “unimportant” things

are so beautiful

Not trying to be anything special

Just being

Whether any one sees or not

Tiny moments of reality that we usually just dismiss

But when we actually look, the beauty awaits

The small things really are the big things

The unimportant really is the most important

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