Balance?

Driving to work this morning, I saw a student walking across the grass between two sidewalks, not really headed toward any particular building. It was early in the morning, so maybe she was just getting some exercise. She was listening to ear buds that snaked via a white cord towards her jeans pocket and presumably to an iPod device. She was completely oblivious of her surroundings, bopping to the music with her eyes closed, flipping her arms about and banging her head against nothing in particular. She looked happy in an odd sort of way.

What attracted my attention was her attire. She wore heavy, dark brown, thick-tread soled hiking boots that laced half way up her ankle. Her bluejean shorts dangled off her hips and hung big and loose to just shy of her boot tops. Her midriff was bare with her little rounded tummy punctuated by a diamond stud. Her light pink blouse (and I use the term loosely) had holes ripped in it everywhere, so many that I began to think perhaps it was a Salvation Army reject though I suppose she paid a lot of money for that look.

Her hair was dyed blonde with a lot of black root showing and hadn't been combed in a good while by the looks of it, and was not protected by any sort of headgear, though her sunglasses were big, thick, dark and expensive looking.

It just struck me as odd that her lower body was so carefully protected and covered up while her upper body was completely at risk and uncovered for the most part. It made me think about how people approach life. About how we ignore some things that seem important and overconcentrate in other areas and whether we have the right balance, and how we are distracted sometimes and not paying too much attention. Meanwhile, she skipped out of sight and I drove to the parking garage to face another day of sorting and tying up loose ends. And pondering about whether I have any sort of sensible balance in my life. I shall have to give that more thought.