Conversation with a Stranger

Scene: BART from SF 16th St to Oakland. I’m tired and a little worn out. My dinner date had said, “I just want to give you a big hug! You look like the world beat you down.” This is after I went as far as to curl my hair to appear bright and chipper.

The man sitting next to me is really, really into his iPhone. I can tell that from the first second I sit down. He asks me a question about iPhones I don’t really know the answer to but I answer anyway.

Then he shares with me this cool looking astrology app and we both marvel at photos from the Hubble telescope like this:

He tells me about this Nova you can see right now…brighter than all the stars in the Universe. The light we can see left that star before our galaxy was even born.

“It makes you feel pretty insignificant,” I say.

“Yes. I think that’s right,” he replies.