Making Contact

Please forgive the lack of science content in the next post:

Today, as I was riding in the elevator performing the mental gymnastics required to plan out my day, I took a minute to pause. I decided to make small talk with the woman with whom I was sharing the elevator. After some insignificant comment I made, which to be honest I don’t even remember, she replied, “I am on my way to the cancer center, I need courage today”.

We talked more as the floors passed on our descent to the parking deck, and I then we separated; a little less strangers than we were two minutes before. I am not going to delude myself with the thought that anything that I actually said could have made her feel more at ease, but I do feel that the fact that we shared a very human, very real conversation, regardless of what was said, was somewhat of a distraction. Just for a moment.

In a world where we are all so busy, our lives are all so complicated, sometimes just making contact with a stranger can have an impact. She had an impact on me, my crazy busy day with all my important things to do somehow seemed a little less crazy, a little less busy, and a lot less important. Perhaps if we all took a few seconds out of our day to give a stranger a little gesture of support, even a passing smile, our worlds would seem just that much more manageable.