Strangers

Strangers are people too.

Might that sound odd, really think about it. Of course they are. Maybe they're not at all like you, they don't think like you, don't come from the same background as you, probably wouldn't even like you if they knew you personally.

You are a stranger. Yes, you; reading this. You are a stranger. I can not even begin to think about who you are, who your family is, what you think about and who. The way you feel about global warming, your thoughts on political leaders, your attraction towards certain people. How could I possibly know that?

So you are a stranger. And the few people that actually read this are strangers to each other, strangers to each other's family and friends, won't know who you are.

You see, a few days upon yesterday, I found a certain stranger. A very particular stranger. Had they made some sort of impact into the world, or had I, I can never be certain. Will never be certain. What I did seemed appropriate.

me: look

them: where

me: over there

them: where over there

me: to ur left

them: ok...

me: wave at it

them: done..

me: tell it you come in peace

them: ok but I'm not sure what im talking to yet

me: just wait.

now, reach a hand forward and stroke the air. it should feel soft.

you have your own invisible kitten.

I was not talking to this certain stranger physically, but I don't think it mattered. I knew that our conversation was vague, because I didn't get their gender or name or anything. I don't know who they were or where they were. Perhaps they were sitting at home and were really telling the air that they came in peace, or maybe they were with other people, finding humour in my instructions. How was I to know if they had a Mum and Dad or not? Or if they had a boyfriends or a girlfriend, or if they were still in school or if they were grown up? It didn't really matter. We knew each other in that minute, the slight conversation in which they hopefully aquainted an invisible, cuddly friend.

After thanking me the stranger named his invisible kitten 'Ghost', to which I told him/her to have a nice time with Ghost.

I think we really should start making people's days more often, if its giving them an invisible kitten or simply walking up to someone on the street and telling them you hope they have a nice day and that they are really happy. Because even though you might not be happy, and think you are all alone, a stranger could be really just feeling the same way, wishing someone would assure them that everything was taken care of and that they could just go to bed, or read a nice book, so they didn't have to feel so lonely or stressed or sad.

We are a box of free kittens. Really, all we're wating for is for someone to pick us up. A kitten was taken home by a stranger, a stranger of whom I have no connection to, and that kitten was named Ghost.

I think this is really long but I hope someone stopped to read this, and I hope they thought about what I have said.

I hope you remind yourself that you are a stranger too, and I think that if you were the one who was given Ghost you would be a very happy stranger.

Perhaps I am feeling very poetic and sinister because I have started reading a very beautiful book called Life of Pi. Every word is sweet toffee on my tongue and every page engulfs me in poetry, non-rhyming, continuous, beauty poetry. Like I said, it is a very beautiful book and I should think that everyone should buy it and read it.

Good bye,

Widuzi

"The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity - it's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."

- Yann Martel, Life of Pi