Who would Ilike to talk to soon? Soon is a relative term, so I am answering with who I would like to talk to in general. Eventually seems a long longer than soon while sometime is far too vague. So I have taken out all reference to time.

There are people whom I have never met but who have made a lasting impact on my life, either in how I see things or how I feel about specific topics. It seems a bit obvious that these might be well known on the spectrum of fame. Some people are famous worldwide while others may only be known to their own localities. There are others still who are only known to the people in their lives. Or so they think.

There are two people with world wide fame that I would love to have a conversation with. Their meaning to me is immeasurable because they have changed the way my heart beats. They have produced works of art that have taken my breath away and forced me, in their power, to fully reexamine my place in the world, what I want from the world and how much of myself I am willing to give the world. Talking to them would fully round out my experience of them. Jane Austen and Freida Kahlo.

There are others only known locally, for the most part. You could Google their names and find information, but you would have to go looking for it. They are folks who’s behavior is an illustration of who NOT to be. I would want to speak to them to try and find out why they think their behavior is acceptable in any public sphere. The mayor of my town and one of the councilmembers. Embarassment doesn’t even come close to the feelings they inspire in me.

Finally there are a couple of people I have come across in my day to day life that affected me in ways I hadn’t perceived until years later when I realized our brief encounters still cross through my mind.

There was a woman and child sitting outside of a grocery store and she was holding up a sign with one word. “Food” She had no belongings apart from a small purse, and she and her child were dressed appropriately for the weather and their clothes clean. Food was all she wanted apparently. My response was one that I hoped my late mother could be proud of. A mother who had also been hungry at times in her life. A mother who gave credit to the help from others. From that mother in the parking lot, I would like to know if life made a happier turn for her.

And a young man who I witnessed sitting outside the fence of a public pool, dressed to go swimming. I could see many other children playing in the water on this particularly hot summer day. But this young man didn’t look like the rest of the children in the pool. I know by the look on his face as he watched all of the other kids that all he wanted to do was join them. I don’t know what his life experience had told him he wasn’t free to participate, but the lifeguard supervised pool was somehow off limits to him. To this day I wonder how I could have helped him to at least try to be a happy kid in that moment. He crosses my mind often. Talking to him I would want to know if he found the joy he missed out on that day.