It's Bill Friday ! He's sondering us even farther back in time, to a blog meetup that never happened for him, but simply became vague journal footnotes in a future friendship. Today, we talk about the space between two paths, far before anyone knows that they will one day cross.
Welcome to the Sonder Files.
"You should go."
I was told, for reasons I still don't understand. The logic of those who will not explain themselves always baffles me. I am intuu. A human who feels the shit of other humans, but often can't explain it without a chip from the Rosetta Stone of life to guide me. Without this chip, this key to unlock the feelings and turn them into words, I am more often lost than the one, for whom, all of life is a path they walk with blinders on.
"But I don't do people, least of all strangers."
I responded, defensive. I had grown so defensive of this other one's opinions that I no longer asked why. I simply, and sometimes directly, said no. Of course, there were the pictures. There are always pictures on the internet.
So, I looked.
I looked at a scene, of all the strangers. Some familiar, others totally alien to me. All of them within minutes of my own backyard. None ever to be within arm's length of my daily existence. Hugs and handshakes. Faces mugging for 8 megapixel memories. Every one acting out the good time they were expected to have.
Except one.
All the rest forgotten against a backdrop of celebration. But one and only one, remembered. Bookmarked in my intuu mind for future reference. One, whose smile never quite reached her eyes.
Until the requisite time the Universe required. And the eyes, and the smile, became one.
Bill and I first met after I got home, and since then, he has been the type of local friend that I can and do call on for pretty much anything- from panicking about cat bowel movements, to trying to find a mechanic. If you don't know him, now's your chance, and it's a perfect day to meet him because it's his birthday!! Go on, wish him a happy new year. {One of the greatest things about life, is how we get so many chances to start over, and celebrate each restart, and share those celebrations with the strangers-who-might-be-friends-in-hiding around us.} But before you run off to his place, leave him a little comment here to let him know you're thankful he sondered. It's these types of messages that remind us that life unfolds as it can and does, and so rarely ever consults our calendar first, or checks to see if we planned to be friends with the strangers who cross our path.
