It’s a cold winter morning and I’m out shooting what i was expecting to be the city covered by fresh white snow. Instead I’m trying my best not to slide and fall on the ice covered sidewalks around the Parliament Palace. After a walk down the nearby park, I’m waiting to cross the street, cold and not so convinced i want to extend my time out in the chilly wind for much longer.
Without notice, I’m approached by a young lady who offers me a book called “The Orange Girl” by Jostein Gaarder. Apparently, she’s spotted me holding my camera while she was on the bus and figured i could be “quite open minded”. She appears to have read a few pages at the beginning, since there’s a bookmark inside.
At this point I’m pretty much stunned. Not being all that much of a social animal, I was left without a reaction so after a few seconds she said goodbye and left. I don’t even remember thanking her. While i wondered what i would do with the book after I’m done reading, for no apparent reason i hesitated asking her just that. After parting ways i took a picture of her (back) and that’s about it.
A few moments after and I’m in full “What was that about?” mode, already over analyzing every single detail. That’s when i realize how much of my usual self I’ve been, not even asking for a phone number or email address to return it to her.
Now I’m left with a wonderful random act of kindness to start my year off, but also with a sort of a mystery. Assuming that everything happens for a reason and everyone can serve as a teacher, I’m grateful for this unusual encounter. However, i can’t help but wonder if my lack of response might have just ruined her day. That would really be a shame. Putting the anxiety caused by my reaction aside, this really helped me realize a few simple things:
- even in a city infested with beggars, teenagers spreading fliers or religious missionaries promoting their new Jesus 2.0 there still are people ready to approach you with an open heart and no ulterior reason;
- maybe we are only brought on to believe that we are strangers when in fact sharing the things we enjoy is effortless and building bridges is a lot easier than burning them;
- never underestimate the unexpected in life.
My innate curiosity makes me wonder who is this girl and what made her approach me. Did i look like a person in serious need of reading a book or was it something else? The few things i know so far are that she began a story about oranges, she might be attending or working at the Geothe Institut in Bucharest and she has a green bag. With that in mind, I’d really like to start a small experiment. Let’s see if using the almighty social networks that are ever so present in our lives I/we can manage to crack this little mystery wide open. What say you? Care to join me in my quest by sharing this to your friends?
In the meantime I’m off reading to see what’s more to learn from this funny synchronicity.
