It’s the year 2014 and I’m sitting at an auto body shop. A talk show is discussing spaghetti and all I want to do is go home. “Do you make sauce?” I look up from my phone to see a smiling man in his early 70s… its 8am and the last thing I feel like doing is making small talk. However, the man continues to look my way and I know there a choice to be made, I can nod my head no and continue to dose off, or I can make the best of the few hours in the shop and make conversation.
I zip my phone up in my bag and respond to the silence, “No actually, I haven’t, do you?” The banter eventually moves past food and for the next hour we speak of Sunday dinners, our families, travels, the news, and love... Nothing made this man happier than talking about his wife. How their 47th anniversary was in a week and how he loved her just the same as he did when they got married. He told me in great detail about the day that they met. How he was only 17 years old and she was 20. How he met her when she let him sit in her car during a rainstorm. How they have been together ever since. He blushed as he told me she was his first love and he couldn’t picture his life without her. How they still made each other laugh. He tells me how they are just getting by financially but that still; they are happy.
After telling me all about his life he went on to ask me about mine. Seeming genuinely interested, he questioned me about the usual, school, job etc. When I told him about my travels he told me that he hoped I stayed in big groups. I told him that I preferred traveling alone. “You’re going to turn my hair even more grey!” He semi-seriously laughed. He asked where my next adventure would be and I told him I was moving to Israel for a few months. “Do you have a helmet…”He muttered under his breath.
Again I was faced with a choice. I could become upset with him about his ignorance, or I could take this opportunity to see where his remark was coming from. After all, with all the terrible images coming from the torn country why shouldn’t he have responded like that? Choosing the latter, I instead decided to ask him if he had ever traveled. He told me he had never left the country. However despite never leaving, it did not deter his curiosity for the world. I used this situation as a chance to tell him that the world really was not such a frightening place. That yes, there are evil people but that the majority of people have good intentions. I told him that after traveling my faith in humanity had been restored. I think he liked that.
Before I knew it my car was done. As I began to stand up he told me that it was really nice getting to know me. “Be safe!” He waved goodbye. Though I may not have gotten this man’s name, I believe that people like these come into our lives for a reason. It is the strangers in our lives that make life worth living. It is the unexpected conversation, the smile from across the train, and the small connections we make that can give our moments meaning.
We are all capable of finding this meaning daily. Capable of shutting off our phones, and letting go of our inhibitions. We are brought up from a young age to think that the second we say hello to a stranger they will shove us in their van and whisk us away never to be seen again. And perhaps in some cases this is true…It would be naïve to believe that we are invincible. However, I would rather live my life in a positive mindset and an open heart than neglect to trust anyone.
Hitch-hiking across Cyprus the month before my encounter at the shop brought this mindset to fruition….
A friend and I had made it our mission not to take a single mode of transportation other than hitching to get across the island. With exploration on our minds we set on our way. Within five minutes of sticking our thumbs to the road we got picked up. Shockingly the passengers of the car were a father and his six year old son. I couldn’t help but gawk at the fact that a father would put their child in danger like that. However I also couldn’t help but respect him for opening his son up to the world.
Around five hitches later we reached our destination, a harbor in a beautiful Turkish city. With all the adrenaline from the success we decided to take a leap of faith and attempt to hitch a boat for kicks. We saw a group of fisherman and asked if they spoke English. “My mother is an English teacher!” One responded. “Oh cool! Think we could get a ride around the harbor?” We politely asked. “Sure! Just give us five minutes.”
They bring us around the castle at the harbor and we swap stories in broken English. As the sun reflects the beauty of the moment atop the vessel, I am in awe at the situation. Bringing us back to shore a while later, they ask if we would like to join them for Turkish coffee. Before we know it one of the men is pulling out a coffee maker and we are all sitting by the dock. Coffee turns into Gyros which is followed by an offered ride to another destination. One of the men is a bee keeper and there is a different castle on his way to work. He plays us his favorite CDs in the car and drops us off without hesitation…
I learned many lessons from my adventures. The greatest thing I learned however is that you never know who is out there until you take the time to get to know them. So many opportunities for friendship pass us daily because we refuse to accept the unknown and release ourselves from our comfort zones. All it takes is the understanding that there are wonderful people out there, people who want nothing more than to know if you make a good pasta sauce.
