Just a Friend You Haven't Met

There is a running joke among my family (mostly my mother) and i about my becoming friends with random strangers. Only I, she insists, would go out of my way to tell the meat vendor at A&P how much i enjoyed the ham she sold me, and continue to swap recipes for 45 minutes. Only Mat would dial the wrong number, and speak to the old man on the other end of the line for a half hour. It should be noted that not only did we have a nice conversation, but he pulled out the phone book and helped me find the number i was looking for.

Yes, it may be a little odd. And i do laugh along with the jokes because they really are funny. But in all honestly, my ability to connect at random moments with random people is one of my personality traits that i cherish above all others. I think its very easy (especially in a big city) to loose sight of the people around us, which is ultimately our own loss. There are a lot of really interesting things to hear if you just take a moment to listen.

Take my "food court friend" from about a year ago. I had stopped in the Rideau Center food court for a quick bite, and an older woman (about 65) asked if she could sit at my table seeing as i was alone and no other tables were free. Now keep in mind, this situation altogether isn't unusual as its a busy mall and most of the tables get snatched up quick. Usually you just go on eating while reading the paper, and neither party speaks a word. But today was a little diffrent. Idle chit chat evolved into good conversation, and before i knew it i was having an intamit discussion with a complete stranger. Eventually we spoke long and hard about why it was that people my age, and people her age very rarely speak to each other on such a level. "People my age think young folk have nothing good to say" she said "but people my age are full of shit". Ultimatly she turned out to be a very insightful woman, and to this day it is one of my favorite memories in this city.

This evening while making my way home, i had yet another encounter like the one above (which is what led to this posting). The local bus system has been shut down for the past two weeks due to a labour stike, which has force many students to use special shuttles on campus to get from one end of town to another. The fun part is that the shuttles run on a schedule only Willy Wonka could understand, and often one spends an hour freezing in front of an empty bus. On this ocasion I got speaking to a woman who i originally assumed was coming from her final exam, but in actually was a traveling scholar from India! It turns out she was a very lovley woman, and we spent the next frosty hour talking about home, family, philosophy, and all the places we hoped to travel. She had an amazing perspective on canadian life, and was amazed that i knew how to greet a fellow scholar in Hindi (Namasté is also a salutation used in Yogic practice). And so yet again i had a great experiance, that came from giving a stranger just a little more of my attention.

I suppose my reason for writing all of this has come out of the past week i spent working the christmas rush. It's been made pretty apparent to me that during the time of year in which we most expected to "love our brother", we actually just want our brother to get their ass out of our parking space, and to quit eyeing the last Tickle Me Elmo. I really do hate clichés, but i think its time we paid more attention to those around us, and make the effort to listen t each other, no matter what month of the year it is. I for one am going to ignore what McGruff the Crime Dog told me througout my childhood, and speak more to strangers.

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