Current books: Thomas More Utopia, Richard Adams Watership Down

As usual, strangers have been talking to me. In fact, there has been a lot of talking in general lately in my life. It is perplexing and comforting how much passing conversation has had depth, soul, and thought. It is also quite peculiar that my day-to-day (well, the part that's not mundane) is wildly...good?

Mrs. Ryser always said that "nice" was a trite word and a bad word choice. Yet I've really upgraded it to what I kind of want to be all the time. Again, strange.

I talked to a woman today while I was waiting for the bus. I believe our conversation started:

Me: Have you been waiting for the bus long?
Her: The 1 bus went by a minute ago.
Me: Oh, well, I'm patient.
Her: You need to stand up for yourself.

The conversation directly non sequitor'd into her life story, her convictions, her beliefs, her experiences, and the odd parts of her life. She was a wonderful woman, a little strange, but no more than the fact that she WAS who she was. No show and no performance. I got onto my bus feeling like I'd met an angel.

We talked about the people we have to love but who we don't have to like. I've been wondering what those people think, how they sleep at night, and how they can live with so little joy (because those are generally the people I don't particularly like). A piece of me feels like, at the end, people who have known joy realize their lives were not frivolous in joy, and those who have not finally get to know it. THEN the love stops being something occasionally exclusive of like, and everyone can get it. Some people down here just see it more clearly than other, like the woman at the bus stop.

I've also been really digging (scratching?) Watership Down. And learning (HA) chinese.