A Thousand Shining Kindnesses by Uzodinma Okehi

The secret of ants and bees, of civilization, is that at any given time no one individually seems to have much of a clue. And like that, there was a certain point after which I began to nakedly observe this idea in motion, for instance, in the countless bookstore jobs that seemed to be the only ones I could stand. Maybe it was different in bookstores, and I suppose there was always a certain part of me that just felt lazy. I’d take my paper cup of coffee and when the mood struck me I’d be gliding around, smirking and talking to people, or just cruising by watching the obvious schemes they’d built up over the years to make it look as if they were always working at a breakneck pace . . . One way to put it would be to say the average work day all over the world was usually spent doing next to nothing. I chose to tell myself that this was no scheme, but in fact the glue that held cities together, like unsaid thoughts talking, brick to brick.

Author bio:

Uzodinma Okehi lives, breathes, writes, and draws comics in New York City. For issues of his zine, Blue Okoye, try him at: okehi@hotmail.com