Tailings of the Weekend

School did not happen for me today; normally, I enjoy learning what I can from my classes, but I was too tired to find any kind of motivation to perform even the slightest charade of an interested college student. Every once in awhile, life will intrude and force you consider the type of person you are or how you relate to life and other poeple. You broadly re-evaluate your approach to world. And the events that may spark this re-evaluation are almost always completely unforseen.

For example, I once got an afternoon phonecall from a stranger - a young woman who gradually told me that she was recently unemployed, bereft of emotional support from family, and traveling by car from Alaska to tour the rest of the states - a phonecall that, through our conversation, had disturbed me for a couple of days. She had been desperate, and, from a payphone, dialed a wrong number, mine. It was odd talking to a stranger; I can't remember how or why she began telling me her story. She felt lost and direction-less, and, impulsively, had left her house to embark on this trip. Here she was - hundreds of days and miles later - talking about deeply personal matters for an hour over a payphone. After we hung up, I proceeded to think about this odd and random event for several days. The woman did not appear to want anything, except to talk, even if with a stranger. Only noticing it a couple of days later, I discovred that our phone conversation had changed my mood; I had become quiet and pensive.

This weekend was similar, but I'll not say why. On my trip home, a long morning drive on an almost trance inducing highway, I watched the trees and hills as they passed, thinking about how moments of quiet stillness, almost like an undogmatic meditation, can bring an emotional calmness that I feel I should learn to value, and perhaps even practice, more.