Today I headed back to Toronto. It was mostly a boring travel day....until I hit Cleveland. There I met Bill from Minnesota.
Bill and two of his co-workers sat down close by with three big fat burritos. I was immediately jealous and he caught me eyeing his burrito. I asked him where he managed to find the burrito place was, after all I had toured around a bit and hadn't seen anything appetising to pick up for dinner. Bill told me it was waaaaaay down at the beginning of the concourse. I was at gate 27. Blarg! I laughed and told him to let me know if it was worth the long walk!
And as he dug into his dinner, he shared that it was indeed a great burrito and well worth "hoofing it down there". And then, we began an interesting conversation - complete strangers. We swapped work titles and where we live info. He's a prof from Minnesota returning home from a tech conference in Ohio (and yes it was worth the trek). We had two very interesting conversations from that point onwards. (What a great way to pass the time!)
First, when Bill found out that my love from SoCal was into skydiving, he had a million and one questions for me. I happily indulged him, after all, I just left my love. An easy conversation, only to find out that Bill passed on an opportunity to do a tandum jump as a friend of the family, with 500 jumps, had had a fatal accident. His wife begged him not to do the jump. And so, the million and one questions about the sport. Interesting how conversations roll sometimes.
Second, Bill finding out I was a Canadian led to him asking me my opinion about our health care system. Ah. Very deep for a second conversation. Not knowing what side of the fence Bill was sitting, I was completely honest with him and shared with Bill my feeling that I was grateful for it. I very much believe that if we didn't have health care, my Dad would likely not be with us as he's spent many years very sick. We talked quite a bit about it all. His side of it is that he doesn't really know what Obama Care was all about, but he was nervous about the ever increasing costs of health care in the states.
After our conversations, Bill offered to watch my bag and laptop (charging) if I was ready to "hoof it down" to burritos. And so, I took my key documents and wallet and trusted the rest of my wares with a complete stranger. What?
As I walked from gate 27 passed gate 2 to the food court I was thinking to myself: Have I lost my mind?
And then I found out that the burrito place was closed for the evening (no burritos after 8 pm apparently!). Bummer! So I made my way back to my waiting area.
Of course, my carry-on and laptop were exactly where I left them. (phew!) When I share the disappointing news with Bill, he was sympathetic and chided me for eating dinner so late. Shortly thereafter, it was time for him to board his plane. He made it a point to come over to me, shake my hand and wish my partner and I all the best of luck in our new adventures.
Incredible really how much you can get to know someone in a couple of hours.
Moments sharing stories with a stranger.
Moments trusting that the stranger is good peeps and finding out he really is.
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