different worlds

My co-worker, Kim, and I inhibit entirely different worlds. Admittedly, our age difference is one factor, but it goes beyond that. Kim is a hipster, a burner, a designer, an actor, a clubber (is that even the term for somebody who goes "clubbing?"), a performer (by this I mean somebody who dances in front of audiences while twirling a lit ball of fire on the end of a rope. I suppose the term is "fire dancer"). I am none of these things.

Our worlds collide only briefly at work and through our mutual love of photography. She moves in a world whose existence I am barely aware of; one that exists simultaneously in the very same city, on the very same streets that I inhabit yet never visit. I've seem images of her world on Facebook and on her website and on the computer monitor as she shares them with other co-workers more closely aligned to her age and lifestyle (although I suspect they rarely visit Kim's world as well). Kim's world seems to hold "glitz" and "glamour," and begins as night falls.

She ventures forth in the cover of night (when I am sequestered safely at home, doors locked, dinner cooked, with some time ahead of me perhaps allotted to some channel surfing in front of the TV before retiring to bed) as the city lights ignite, exactly the time vampires begin prowling for their nightly blood feast, if they truly exist. And if they do exist, well, I'm sure Kim has met a few along the way. She gathers with friends (who, I imagine, are disguised during the day to look like you and me) who share her interests and travel the same paths; some who have undoubtedly made the annual trek to Burning Man with her. Sometimes I suppose she practices her fire dancing with some of them, sometimes she simply drinks and chats with them (punctuated intermittently with peals of laughter). Sometimes she probably just hangs out with them. Whatever she does, I am sure she does it with more flare and style and edginess than I could ever hope to bring to the same circumstances.

Nonetheless, I consider us friends. It's interesting how the workplace and proximity can make the strangest of bedfellows. Many of us live entirely different lifestyles and travel in entirely different circles, yet we co-exist, brought together in a sort of community by some commonality (be it work, our shared hobbies, our shared place of worship). People we would normally never conceive of forming bonds with become our friends. How marvelous is that? The world is an interesting place, full of diversity and possibilities. Although I may never attend Burning Man, I feel I know it, all because of my association with Kim and our annual ritual of show-and-tell upon her return. And, should I be out there in the city at night, and should a vampire or two choose to descend upon me as their evening's prey, I am confident that if Kim is anywhere nearby, she will vouch for me and divert those vampires elsewhere.