Conversations with Strangers

Perhaps this is the result of being cooped up for as long as I have been for the past few years and isolated. Or maybe I really am becoming an extroverted introvert. Whatever the case might be, I seem to often find myself in situations where I end up talking to complete strangers about the most random of topics. I tend to learn a lot about people very quickly. It doesn’t really matter who they are, how different they are from me, I seem to find some common ground—at least for a time.

But, increasingly, to the shock and horror of those close to me, I’ve been finding that I’d end up in traditionally ‘heated’ conversations discussing controversial or political topics rather freely—but without the heat. Any of the heat, really. It doesn’t mean that myself and the stranger necessarily agree on everything, but I can’t tell you of the last in-person conversational that has not been civil.

And that’s the key: in-person.

The ability to engage in a back-and-forth where I’m able to ask follow up …