Jogging along the beach yesterday in St. Kilda and we saw a penguin.

There’s a bridge leading from the beach into the harbor where sailboats are scattered. Looming in the background is a panorama of the Central Business District (CBD) aka downtown. I’ve never had such an uninterrupted view of an urban landscape spontaneously arising and disappears again as the water meets the city then meets the open land from left to right.

The penguin was perched alone on a rock jetting out from the bridge. He looked relaxed.

On our way home we passed through an indigenous art store. Paintings of “Dreamtime” captured my attention unlike any other style of painting I’ve seen in recent memory. Dots bring to life animals and colors with a “time out of time” profundity of landscape that you can feel surrounded by when staring away.  Generations of raw experience, emotion and stories expressed on a simple piece of canvas. Despite all of the art I’ve seen in my life, I’ve never quite seen it in the way I did today.

After leaving the shop we walked through quiet streets of Victorian style houses on our way home and saw a man sitting on a ledge wearing a long wool coat. Giving a little chit chat to each person that passed it seemed. I was ready for a little back and forth, “Hi how are? Fine thanks.”

Instead he turned to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, “I’m the most beautiful man you’ll ever meet.”

That’s one of the last things I expected hear to truth be told. I know the average guy talking to himself and others as they walk by with no real agenda can be capable of saying some strange things, but this was different. It was funny. Serious. Convincing. It stuck with me. The most beautiful man I’ll ever meet?