I mused during my morning commute, as I people watched, the lost art of conversation. Most of them either had headphones in, eyes glazed over listening intently to music/ podcasts or there were some without headphones mindlessly scrolling through their phones.
I mentally match-made young couples from what info I could easily gather using only my eyes. Clothing and hairstyles which lead to assumed music taste, hobbies and general age groups. I then decided a pair were soulmates but destined to be apart because they would never have the required conversation on this train to ever meet.
Just as I wondered this, I felt eyes looking into my lap. Sounds strange I know, but my phone was there face-down as I of course…… also had my headphones in listening to a podcast. On the back of my phone, there is a sticker which says “Be Kind. Do Good.” With a smiley face.
After a few of these looks over, I heard a gentle “Excuse me” and proceeded to pause my podcast and turn off the noise cancelling. I smiled. “I noticed the sticker on the back of your phone – he said – My little sister collects stickers and I think she would love that one. May I ask you where you got it from?”. I said “There is a store, in Fremantle, called Kate & Abel – Kate has all kinds of cool stuff. I got it from there.”
We chatted for the remainder of our journey. Small talk, like what we did for work and where we were from with some jokey banter scattered throughout. We had some meaningful discussion too, about the value of a work life balance and what we each enjoy to achieve that – since we had learned we both “work for the man”. We discussed the importance of setting goals and I told him how great I am at setting monthly goals such as limiting alcoholic drinks per week and doing 10 mins of duolingo and meditation a day – only to be disappointed when I get to the mid-month and realise how many goals I haven’t met. Then that brought us to the subject of meditation and…… time. He told me he managed 3 months(!) of a-minute-of-meditation-a-day and then suddenly stopped it because he couldn’t even find a spare minute a day to continue.
The voice of the train announced our station. I wrapped up by thanking him for the nice conversation, wished him a lovely day ahead – and my hope that he achieves all his goals for the rest of the year. He thanked me for the store recommendation and we ended by introducing ourselves.
He was Ollie.
Thank you Ollie for the 15 minutes of artful conversation that reminded me we are still humans who can interact and care about one another, with no agenda except to simply share a moment – set apart from the despairing status quo.
Journeygirl 