Shared Space

A few years ago, I was walking in the city streets of Arizona. A homeless man with a happy face and a broken tooth came up to me and said, “I love you.” to which I said, “Thank you.” He then told me about his recently gained freedom since he had been in prison for the past fifteen years. Then I held both his hands to bid good bye. It was pure communication, not absurd, vile, or strange in any way. So far he happens to be the only young man to have said those words to me.

These are the kind of moments I think about when I consider our shared space in the universe. Each day we watch people pass by, people who are our contemporaries, human beings who are walking the planet, going through life, in a shared time period. If you stop and happen to make similar eye contact, bear in mind, you may have a way of reaching people of all kinds, in simple ways you may not see at first. At the least, you will be looking at a contemporary, a fellow inhabitant.