Who Comes This Way By?

©2026 Steve Gray

Carlos and I are seated in the warm, afternoon sunshine at a sidewalk cafe at de Sant Josep Oriol, in broad sandstone coloured surrounds. The umbrellas around us provide some solid respite from the otherwise penetrating afternoon sun. We chat, extrapolate, explore, philosophise, and reminisce as we often do, sip coffee and devour savoury treats at a pace befitting two aging gents.

Carlos shuffles in his seat, as always he fidgets and nods irregularly, something I have noted as a subtle thing for many years, now it’s more pronounced. These days there would be a name for it, but I’m not bothered by it. Mind you, I am sure I have my own quirks. Like if I sit too long I can limp a little after rising from the seat.

We watch silently, as an older, dishevelled man with a duffle ‘bag of burden’, comes this way from down the street. His steps are slow and methodical. The weight he bears seems substantial, yet the burden may not be so much in the mass he carries, but in the embittered look he seems to reflect.

He trudges by. Solidly worn by time. The years appear to not have served him well. His furrowed brow. The heavy bags beneath his eyes, and flaccid jowls betray his exhaustion. Let alone his clothing, worn, torn and in general dusty disrepair, the sleeves on the dark rough material are rolled up halfway up his forearm, one slightly higher than the other.

He continues, moving through the light, toward the ‘shadow land’ further down the street and beyond. His burdensome long canvas bag, draped heavily upon his shoulder. Is held in place by his wrinkled worn hands. He has a stooped gesture, holding firmly to a rope tie over the shoulder digging into his skin.

I note that his pilgrimage is probably closing in on him, it seems like the journey of many men. Probably etched heavily in his mind are the conundrums of life, its meaning, reverence, the spirit, and the reality.

He stops briefly at a cafe just up the alley. To sip some water left on one table, then some sparse morsels he gathers on plates left nearby. He is on his way again soon after. This man with a burden goes this way by. And where will his journey end? Perhaps at a safe place, an arched entrance to some office, or maybe I should not be so bold as to presume, it could be that he has a residence somewhere further along. 

The broader journey will conclude when his burden is gone. Patiently and methodically I feel sure, he hopes this will be so. My attention is briefly averted by Carlos making a pointed remark about a cousin of his, a large, rude, brute of a man with no sense. I suddenly look up out of curiosity, the man with a burden is gone. I break Carlos’ conversation out of wonderment.

‘Where did he go?’ I look around with a hurried look, leaning over to see around one of the other tables with people on it. Blast, I see nothing.

‘Who?’

‘The guy with the burden, he trudged through here as we sat and watched.’

‘Oh yeah, that’s right, he went way up the street and yeah, then he disappeared. Come to think of it, I wondered the same? I don’t know the answer, but I think we could guess. We became somewhat distracted.’

‘We could guess, but how would we know if we are right or not?’ I craned my neck further to see if I could locate him. My curiosity was there but not as solidly as a moment ago.

‘Well it’s a guess, you might have a thought that’s different to mine and it might spark me to explore another option and so on. Back and forth it might go, until something seems like a logical outcome.’ Carlos also took a careful look, but to no avail.

‘What if his destination is not logical?’

‘Or what if it’s not just about the destination, but about the journey, and or, what if it’s about both.’

‘See, now there’s a thing, I didn’t think of the destination… just the journey.’

‘So, where, how, why, what, all of that could fit into this discussion.’

‘How do they fit in?’ 

‘Well I guess it could be, ‘What was his burden to begin with? Look, I’ll make it easy, if his burden was just physical, we could probably surmise it was in his bag, however if we are talking metaphorically it could be something else, like a financial issue. The bag therefore, is merely a representation of his thinking, then his feeling about an issue. So it manifests itself as a physical thing he believes he needs to carry. Or, as the actual burden reduces, he then lets some of the physical burden go.’

‘Yep, I can see that being a thing. Funny how it might go around in circles, from a real thing, to a metaphor, to a physical thing back to a mental thing, which might affect him physically. It could all be a complex loop. He has to endure the burden, but he may not be able to handle it for long.

‘So he achieves certain goals and lets some of his physical burden ‘out of the bag’. Then he continues on… I guess it could also be that he carries something in that bag that he sells, or tries to sell, he then gets the money, takes it to the bank, and pays down his debt. Thus reducing that burden.’

‘Yep, that could be the thing, but wait. What if he has to then go and buy more items to sell, thus creating another burden. Each time he’s hoping to have a bit more ‘margin’ at the end so he can get ahead.’

‘Ah, welcome to business!’

‘Yes, I guess so. But what if his burden is different, what if it’s a thought based thing, like a memory of a physical burden, each time he goes to a therapist or something similar, he gets to release some of his burden.’

‘Ah, it causes me to wonder, if up the road there he drops into a tavern to let some of his ‘demons’ go?’

‘That could be. Are we closer to guessing where he went?’

‘I guess not. Another coffee Bryan?’

‘No thanks Carlos. I’m just enjoying the sunshine out here, it’s another beautiful day.’

‘That it is. Now, where were we? Ah yes… discussing my cousin…’