Meaningful Encounters

Natural Date 559

He hollered from the window of his gray pickup truck, “Are you okay?”

”Yes sir, I said getting up from the picnic table, “I’m just resting. I’m walking across America for Natural Law.” I handed him my card through his window. He responded with an interested gesture. 

I told him I was admiring the historic American Legion building and the silhouette of a soldier displayed on the front and asked if the cemetary was for soldiers. He said mostly. He’d just come to the building to fix a hole in the floor. He said they’d already put in a kitchen and that the community held yard sales to keep it going.

I enjoyed the man’s strong New England accent; but more than that, I enjoyed that he made an effort to stop and chat. It was meaninful to me and I hoped it was for him as well. I felt no impulse to explain myself, expound on Natural Law nor do any more than give him my card and share a human connection.
————--
As I was about to enter a crossroad on US-1, I noticed a car approaching and stopped short. The blonde, middle-aged woman driver waved me across and hollered out her window something I couldn’t quite make out.

I turned and moved toward her open car window, “Ma’am?”

She said with a half-smile, “I would have gone ahead and run you over but I don’t have time for all the paperwork involved.” 

This cracked me up and we laughed together as I handed her my card. “This is just so you know who it is you almost ran over,” I said.

She took my card, gave it a glance, and with raised eyebrow said, “Oh, hm, interesting.”

That’s all there was to that interaction; but again, it was meaningful to me as I thoroughly enjoyed her humor and the effort she made to share it with me.
————--
There was another man, well dressed, middle aged, who hollered across the scenic parking lot at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, “Where you walking to?”

”California,” I said without thinking first.

He seemed utterly flabbergasted. After sputtering a bit he smiled, waved and hollered, “I wish you success at whatever it is you’re endeavoring!”

​I smiled back, waved and thanked him. I forgot to tell him why I was walking and forgot to give him a card. Still, it was meaninful to me that he was curious enough to ask where I was headed.

These little encouters, these brief human connections, are what make life interesting and enjoyable, however minor they may seem. And they are what this walk is all about.