The Simplicity of Hemingway

I happened to beging reading a short story by Ernest Hemingway entitled Old Man at a Bridge. I'd never read it before but it was in an anthology of all Hemingway's short stories I'd purchased some time ago. 

I didn't get past the first line. 

I'm always looking for things that inspire me, things that make me think. I'm also quite aware that on my literary journey, I'm little more than a "babe in swaddling clothes," chipping away at the rock of storycraft, trying to hone my style, my voice, along with telling stories that mean something. There is always something to learn.

For some reason, the first line in this Hemingway piece struck me with its simplicity as well as its imagry. In so few words, I got a complete picture of this man the writer chose as his subject.

It was a remarkable sentence, and quite elegant.

"An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusy clothes sat by the side of the road."

There is an entire story in one sentence. That's all it took. 

Beautiful.