talking to strangers

Distractions can be pleasant sometimes.

I meant to log some project hours at the library for work today.

Instead I talked to a stranger for an hour while drinking my favourite coffee.

This is not something I usually do. I am the first to admit that I am shy. However it is something I very much enjoy. As long as the person is not a freak (which you know in the first five seconds after which you can easily dismiss them) there is something fascinating about watching someone you don't know wax on about whatever. I mean, it always starts out as pleasant enough conversation with each party contributing dialogue, but I am such a champion listener that somehow it turns into a platform for "what should be done,"; "what is right"; "what is wrong," etc. I think I have cathartic eyes.

I remember a few years ago I was on a bus. I am the person that you sit beside who doesn't speak or even look at you. The person who disappears into a separate world reading her book. But on this bus ride as soon as I sat down, the guy next to me started talking. We had a good conversation which is not something that comes naturally to me when it's with a stranger. It wasn't about anything really. Just bits and pieces for the hour long ride. He said that every time he rode that bus he always talked to the person next to him. More interesting than looking at the back of people's heads, he said. And he's right. I can't count how many times I rode that bus. But I only remember that one ride.

And I can't count how many times I've bought coffee from my local coffee joint. But I will remember today. To each of them, I am just another person they talked to. But for me they are the person that talked to me.

So, to all those individuals that live to talk to others. To those that talk to the person sitting next to them on the airplane, the person standing in front of them in the checkout line, thank you. And don't ever stop talking.