Is it me?

So just now I was walking home from the office. A big project ran on late.

I was happy to stay back and work on it. I love my job.

Walking home I go through the meadows, and (as usual) I avoid the main drag in favour of the less well used path beside Melville Drive. I like it. It's quiet.

Halfway home I spot a couple ahead. They're moving a little slower than I am but I'm not worried. They're a couple for one thing so I won't spook them, but also they seem solid. Big. Manly...

I get closer and see that I'm behind two men. Two large manly men. Two large manly men who are holding hands as they walk.

I love this.

I want to hug them just for being there.

I'm going to pass them soon.

...

How do I tell them how amazing they are without being weird. I mean, I'm seeing them as me, I'm almost 40. I still relate to the world through that filter... but "large manly men" might be as young as 20, or younger. For them this might be unremarkable.

My heart skips a beat.

This might be unremarkable.

...

It might not though.

It's dark, we're on a lightly used path, these men might just as easily be my age. They might be as aware as me of how miraculous and beautiful their simple, quiet, inoffensive act of togetherness is.

I need to acknowledge it.

...

I know. That's idiotic. I still do.

...

I pass them. I hold out my arm at right angle to my body and I make an emphatic thumbs up. I hold it for 30 seconds. And I let go.

I love these men. Whoever they are, whether or not they saw my gesture of solidarity, whether or not the understood it. I love that they exist.