Today was a specially fantastically good day. Because Shiela told me so. It was guaranteed from the moment she said it.
"Have a faith that today will be an especially good day" she told me.
Shiela is a woman in her mid 50's. Her form is reubenesque, but squished horizontally. Her hips, bubble out and her calves do too. She looks like a librarian and I have been seeing her on my morning commute regularly every week. I notice her most especially because she wears a pair of sneakers and a dress/skirt. Her style is normal, so normal that she stands out, because of how unfashionable it is. But it is not unaesthetic to my eyes, infact every time I see her I imagine her at a office desk in a cubicle performing a task very menial and very boring. For some reason this image, can bring me one of two emotions. The first of which I spite, because I pass judgment. That judgment it one that places her into the category of boring people wasting their lives away doing menial tasks and unfortunately the mediocrity of it all has spitted out a quintessential example of it all, which is this woman Shiela. But my other feeling is one of comfort and familiarity in her normality. An oddity, but a oddity of normality.
Today I talked to Shiela, and the conversation did not surprise me. It brought me comfort, letting myself into her world and she held a conversation that painted a picture for me. I am enthralled in the normality of it all. And I guess its great because when you involve yourself in thoughts of extreme complexity on the daily, the normal things seem like gems. Perfect examples of a world floating in blissful ignorance. In our conversation we talked about the books we were reading. She told me that she was reading a book about the Third Reicht. She had picked it up at a thrift store. I feel like an alien, intrigued by the simplicities of human life. Shiela is exquisite, because she is a positive thinker, yet intrigues her self with the Nazi's. I would like to know more about her interests, and things in her life that are strange distortions of reality.
And the benefit of talking to strangers is that you take along social skills and edicate from each conversation. And expanding your own world to talk to some one right next to you is special, becasue you can look up and really interact with a human. Although its for personal gain, for some reason listening is also great because a stranger might just need that bright moment in their day. I'm sure I did.
-Zeke
