On Meeting a Beautiful Person

How a single interaction between strangers can lift one’s spirits and emphasize the power and meaning of community.

Minutes ago, I entered my apartment after randomly bumping into a lovely woman. She had a yoga mat with her. I asked her how her yoga class was and while it turned out to be a local Pilates class she had just participated in, my inquiry led to a great 15-minute chat.

The interaction was so beautiful and meaningful to me, I felt compelled to sit down and write about it immediately.

I’m always hesitant to guess a person’s age, but I’m guessing she was about my age. I’m 71. We certainly felt a connection by our shared age demographic. That was clear.

After asking about her class and her giving me some basic information about it, a class that takes place regularly in my neighborhood that I didn’t know about, she started to walk away then suddenly turned around and said “You know, I was really depressed and down, and this interaction really helped. Thank you.”

Pow. That landed like a message meant to be fully absorbed and shared widely. A simple, random interaction between two strangers ended up making someone’s day so much better, and frankly it made my day better too.

I mentioned to the woman that I was currently writing a speech to be delivered to an audience in a couple of weeks and the topic is community. I told her I was going to use our interaction as an example of the power and importance of community.

She shared with me a lot about her life over the past few days. She had been depressed. We commiserated about he state of our country and the world. She shared that a good friend had just fallen and broken a hip and that weighed on her. She shared that she had been attending a Jewish ritual called a minyan at her local synagogue and I learned something about that tradition.

In short, for 15 minutes I had a close bond with a total stranger with lovely conversation and at the same time we were lifting each other’s spirits because that’s what true human interaction does. It gives us hope for humanity. It brightens our day. It makes us remember that there are far more good, beautiful people in the world than not.

For me, that’s community. That brief interaction on the sidewalk near my house encapsulates what true community is about. Person to person interaction. Caring about others. Finding other people’s lives interesting and worth honoring. Uplifting others, which of course uplifts us as well because that’s how it works.

I urge you to practice random acts of conversation as much as you can. It matters. I think you’ll find it makes you feel better. It will make others feel better too. We all want to be seen, acknowledged, and dare I say, loved. Go forth and love as much as you can. This messed up world we’re experiencing right now needs as much love as we can foster.

Humanitarian Millard Fuller once said, “For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.” Let’s make our communities whole and healthy.

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