Strangers

I was on the train coming home from the suburbs yesterday and I was minding my own business reading the Sun Times. Which I've decided is WAY better than the Tribune FYI. Anyway, I'm on the blue line and there is a woman sitting next to me. She got a call on her cell and from the sounds of it she had missed her stop and wasn't sure where to get off. She was meeting someone for coffee and they decided to just meet at the next stop and find a place. She got off the phone and applied some make up. I wondered why. Not that it was any of my business but it just sounded like a friendly meeting not some hot date. But what do I know. (Ok, not to pause the story, but I'm pretty sure that I heard someone puke outside my window. That's nasty.) Moving along..... Once we approach my stop (nope, it's gagging. And they are smoking. STOP IT!) Ok, so we approach my stop and she asks me if I'm getting off. I say yes. She asks if there are places to grab some food around the area. I told her to follow me and I'd point her in the right direction. On our way I learned that she was meeting her husband who is in the military. He had been gone for three months and they were meeting, very quickly, because he had to turn around and leave again in two hours. We talked about how he'd been in California but before that he was in Iraq. She had missed him. She hopes he doesn't have to go back. I hesitated to voice my opinion. She was so sweet and it was good to share this moment. Once I pointed her off to Lulas she seemed excited to try it out and pleased to be in a new neighborhood she'd never been. They live in the south loop, which, she said "makes for a lot of temptation to go get lou malnattis pizza every night." We laughed. Then we said goodbye. It was a nice visit, a moment and perspective into someone elses life that a lot of times, I and others against the war judge and probably misunderstand. A new kind of politics, the kind that Obama speaks of, emcompasses compassion for both sides, being able to view the world without narrowing blinders. It was a nice walk home.