WHEN STRANGERS MEET

 

WHEN STRANGERS MEET

I want to write a blog about when strangers meet, but before I do that, must use this blog venue and mechanism to air my thoughts and then get on with everything else.  I had a computer crash just last week.  I knew what to do.  Throw money at the situation and just go into Best Buy and purchase the latest and greatest at a very high price for something that ends up on the scrap heap before the year is out.  Running around the countryside in an RV, enduring bumps and vibration and everything conceivable, once you find yourself at the mercy of the road-forces.  So  throw money at the situation, or investigate.

Found myself in a foreign location and where people deal with you in the way they choose.  Sometimes rude and arrogant, they notice you are not a local, probably won’t be coming back, and in some ways this makes you a second class citizen, instantly.  So I had this encounter with sales person #1, who at age 23 or younger, told me how it was or is.  The message came through loud and clear.  I thought the kid was not entirely right, but through long years of training, stayed polite, and left the store without protest.  Didn’t buy anything.  Kid was being local and still young.  Did the smart thing.  Thanked him for his time.  And left. 

 

Gave the benefit of the doubt.  Just left.  Didn’t say anything, but have been thinking about it.  The message left with me.  Didn’t sit well, but when I find some distance, will figure it out and go from there.  Turns out this rude/arrogant salesman approach is keeping me from writing a blog about when strangers meet.

So message received.  It went like this.  Jettison tradition.  Anything you did, 10 years ago, and that would be 2004:  “ Forget about it.”   Learn from your mistakes, well forget about that too.  In fact, it’s a different now.  Make no comparisons with what you did before.  Get rid of erroneous thinking.  Move forward.

 

Of course, there is much more that this young person imparted to me.  And am still working with my thoughts, but see quite a bit of common sense, mixed with a lot of bullshit.  Being I am out in the country, I can smell the bullshit, before I can see it.  But moving along, I realize, we are moving at the speed of light, in so many directions at once, that there is no one way to do life, as it is presented in the moment. 

 

The computer problem was solved in the old way.  Went out into the community and took advantage that I have white hair, and an expensive RV as background for the first look and first impression.  Pull up to a yard sale with a 52 foot diesel rv/personalized bus, and what you get is very unpredictable.  Turns  out good this time.  Walked away with a laptop that allows me to write this blog, about:  When Strangers Meet.

 

There is a problem, but I am working on it.  This blog is inspired by communication I received in the way of personal email, from one who reads my blogs.  So I have two tasks to complete.  Write a blog about:  When Strangers Meet.  Also, to write a personal response to email, from somebody who takes the effort and energy to write AND say, “ I find your blogs interesting.  Tell me more.” 

 

My problem.  The blog will come first, but because I have a word count limitation, when I have baggage and  words and issues, that have nothing to do with you, I blog.  I air it out.  Have my say, and come back on another day, to actually write about:  When Strangers Meet.  But do want to come back with a follow up blog that gives me more content and detail about what I am thinking about when Strangers Meet.  Old way or as the young sales man said, “Wing it.  Fake it till you make it.  Discard lessons of the past.  There is no past. 

Just what happens in the present moment.”

Leaves me thinking, what should be my approach to internet private mail that suggests:  “ Tell me more.”  ??

 

So tomorrow I will be back.  To write about:  When Strangers Meet.  Part 2.  As for the email to my online friend, will give it a rest until I have done the proper amount of personal inquiry, reminding myself that my response will deal with the issue of Meeting A Stranger on The Internet, or   with the second possibility:  Meeting a Stranger:  face to face.  And because I have a word count limitation, it makes me wonder.  Writing and Seeking with those of like-mind:  How is it different then and now.  I wonder.  

Now I will leave you with this.  My lesson for today.  When You Meet A Stranger, things get stranger and stranger.  Believe it or not.  As for me, I copy that.  And move on.  Deferring judgment and  comparisons with a previous experience in a previous time, until I am old, and have more time to think about it, or not.  My blog for today, When Strangers Meet is finished.  But requires more thought.  So actually this conversation is not finished.  Or is it?