strangers

I was blessed on the train yesterday, heading home after work.

I was just sitting there, reading my book, not paying much attention to the goings-on around me, when the man sitting next to me started talking. He'd glanced at my bag and had mistaken my Act Now pin for an Act Up pin and started explaining that he'd been involved with Act Up back in the '80s.

I learned quite a bit about his life in the ten minutes we spent chatting, sitting there on the A train. He is a Vietnam veteran, lost his father to a heart attack in '73, has been living with AIDS for over 20 years, went to college on the GI Bill, does volunteer work for the VA with some of those "kids" suffering PTSD after coming home from our current war(s), and wants to love Obama but is preparing for disappointment.

He was a fascinating man, clearly a kind man with a life story worth listening to, and I'm glad that he mistook my pin for another. His name was George, and he shook my hand when we parted ways, and blessed me, and thanked me for the ear.

It was one of the nicer train rides I've ever had.