Remember cities? If you live in a suburb or beachy town, you might have forgotten what it’s like to bump into people. To listen to strangers. To sit squished next to another human on a public train. I guess that’s the reason a lot of people move to the suburbs or a beachy town. They’ve had enough of sitting squished next to other humans.
But I haven’t yet reached that point. And being in San Francisco last weekend reminded me how special it can be to feel other humans RIGHTTHERE, up against me, in my face, in my space. Their languages bounced around me. Their stories lived on their faces. They smiled at me. They asked me for money. They told me the secrets of their city. CITY!
Usually, if my foot touches another person’s foot, just for a tiny second, we both say ‘sorry.’ One day it became appropriate to be scared of other humans. Scared of touching them. Scared of talking to them. Scared of riding in elevators with them. But we’re all so interesting and different and similar. And we’re all in it together. It’s like we’re in our own season of ‘Lost.’ We all randomly landed on this strange planet, Earth. Nobody knows how we got here, why we got here, what we’re supposed to do here. And there are several fat guys who never lose weight.
At first, we might have been freaked. But now that there are so many of us, it all seems normal. It’s not! It’s weird and we have no idea what we’re doing here and so we’re building streets and electing politicians and drilling oil and having babies, but we have no idea if that’s what we’re really supposed to do.
Thankfully, we’re all stranded here together, so let’s figure it out together. Let’s enjoy that we’re part of a pretty cool species and not trapped in some dream and nobody is eating us or whatever really happened in ‘Lost.’ (never saw it– but once I waited on Matthew Fox at a restaurant and almost cried because he was so attractive.)
I declare today People Day. Let’s go out and crash into each other (metaphorically).
Go ask a homeless guy why he’s homeless. Go tell a stranger you love her scarf. Go meet your fellow Earth-dwellers. Let’s delight in the stories of others. Let’s touch feets under the table. Let’s strike up conversations in elevators. Let’s just be the interesting, funny humans we are.
What’s that? You’d rather watch ‘Lost’ than talk to a man in the elevator? Oh.
{ 35 comments }
Love it! Last week a random "person" sat right next to my family at a restaurant. In fact, he was almost encroaching upon our space bubble. I was suspicious, and leery, but soon we struck up a conversation. He had a deck of cards and taught my little one how to play King's Corner. We ended up laughing, sharing stories and having a great time with this STRANGER who sat too close to us. It was a great experience.
I highly recommend people. They are mostly good.
Love this post! Good comparison to Lost.
Cities kind of force you to interact. LA is only like that sometimes.
After yoga yesterday I was in such a "loving people" mood that I helped a strange man pick out ripe avocados at the supermarket. It was awesome.
Very philosophical… someone is doing some serious thinking… either you are nearing an oasis or you are comfortable drifting where you have layed anchor…
Be well…
YES! This is on the heels of my national honesty month. We're great at creating holidays no one will observe. Go us.
Sure we "could" do all of those things like strike up conversations in elevators, but it's a lot easier for women. If guys did that we would be called creepy or, even worse, annoying.
No one wants to be annoying. Or eat cheese all the time. Just ask Urkel.
Also, who plays footsie? That's a dumb game. No one's even keeping score. What kind of game is that? And then inevitably someone kicks someone's foot too hard and it turns into an Adam Sandler comedy. This is not what we need right now.
Ah, I'm a gal who lives in suburbia, so sadly don't really interact with people. But I talk to strangers online, does that count?
Spoiler alert: In Season 5-ish, beautiful Matthew Fox grows a wicked crazy hermit beard. I thought you should know.
I'm not sure what the homeless people are like in your city, but mine don't look like they want to be asked why they are homeless. I used to buy a guy food sometimes though, he was really nice.
I love people watching. I often overhear other conversations and want to join in. Sometimes… I do.
I "bumped" into 3 people today. It was the most action I've had in quite awhile.
A little late to the people day parade, but last night on the elevator I talked to a random man. He was wearing a dog ear hat just like mine. We concluded that they are the best kind of hats then rode down the rest of the 23 floors in semi-awkward silence.
Well, I believe that clears up 2 difficulties for me personally. How about anybody else?
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