> There are so many people you only see once--a substitute bus driver, a classmate passing by in the hall, a fellow shopper at a store. Sometimes, you lock gazes, "read" each other (so to speak), and one of you moves by and the moment is lost. Unacknowledged but by that one glance, you go your separate ways. The only thing left, most likely, is a vague memory of the other person, and even that will probably not last long. Perhaps, by some chance, you'll meet again, but unless your memory is good, you won't realize it. Perhaps you'll see that face again on the front page of the local paper--or an obituary. You simply can't know...
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> There are some people that, certainly, one is glad not to have known. There are others that one may have just "clicked" with, or been able to help or be helped by. Either way, both live their lives unknown to the other. Both go through celebration, tragedy, joy, sadness... unknown by the other person at that chance meeting.
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> Sa[thoughts from a bus-awaiting ponderer]ku[This was much more coherent when I'd first thought of it. If only my fingers could move as fast as my thoughts...]ra

Sakura, this was an amazing piece of writing. Years from now, I can see myself spotting some of your published work and thinking, "I know her!" (No, I don't want it to be, "I knew her.")

I often have such thoughts. That "What if..." phrase can make me think for eons. What if I had driven ever so slightly faster and not had to wait at the stoplight? What if I had snoozed for another 10 minutes this morning? I can also agonize over the painful things in life and think, "What if that man I knew had left the office five minutes later? Would he have not been the first one to round a curve and run headlong into a truck that had just lost control? Might he still be alive today, several years later?"

However, it works both ways. How many calamities do we narrowly miss each day? How many amazing opportunities have we nearly missed? It's a subject that fascinates me. As you said, Sakura, our experiences and chance meetings with people are the same. I frequently wonder how very different my life would be if I had not found the people here on RinkWorks. Some of these chance meetings with people on RinkWorks have turned into friendships I never could have imagined. It's simply amazing.

Ell"Grateful that RinkyDinks don't give up easily on one another"myruh