Sunday, June 06, 2010

Watch out for the tiny man of Southside Park


For several months, my son and I have noticed a little man that walks around Southside Park in our neighborhood. Walking around the park is apparently this man's livelihood. It is virtually impossible to go to the park at any time of day or night and not see the tiny man.

The tiny man is very sweet and friendly. He seems to recognize us and smiles and waves and says hi. It always makes me happy to see the tiny man.

This brings me to the reason for this post: the tiny man is shrinking. When we first saw the man, he was, maybe 4' 10". He's elderly; he's from a smaller people than we are; and so his height seemed fairly within the norm. But now, a few months later, he is only about 4 feet tall. Not only that, but every day that we see him, he seems to be even shorter. My son and I theorize that he is literally walking himself into the ground.

Like the tigers in the Little Babaji story who slowly turn into butter as they chase each other around a bush, the tiny man of Southside Park may lose as much as a 1/16 of an inch for every lap we walks. At 50 laps a day, that's an alarming rate of shrinkage.

My point is that soon the tiny man of Southside Park will be so small that we will have to take care not to step on him or injure him. So please, as you walk in or near Southside Park (like if you go to our famous farmers' market on Sundays under the freeway), take care and watch out for the tiny tiny ever tinier man.

P.S. The image shown right of the woman holding the tiny man says that it is not to be used without permission, but that is exactly what I am doing. What do you think will happen to me?

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