Crossing Paths

About a month ago I ran into an old friend of mine on the street while picking up Margot from school. Margot was being a little chatterbox talking about the latest crisis in grade 3 when I heard someone yelling my name.

I looked back and saw what appeared to be a hobo of sorts coming towards me. I didn't give it much thought until he came closer and then I recognized my friend (the hipster hobo beard had thrown me off!). I hadn't seen him in 5 years or so. He had seen me picking up Margot that day while going for a walk with his own baby and had recognized me.

Incredibly, he lives on the street leading to École élémentaire catholique Saint-François-d'Assise and has been living there for 10 years. Even more amazingly, even though is literally two minutes from my house, we had never crossed paths in two and a half years until last month.

We got together for dinner last week with our families and caught up on all the lost time. It was fun. But I still have a hard time getting over is how close you can live to someone else and yet never see them. I'm not sure if that is a quirk of my particular life (being so focused on my own family situation, taking Margot to school and activities, dealing with work, etc.) or if a lot more people out there are like me and constantly just missing running into friends and acquaintances by happenstance.

Where serendipity happens!

Heh.  If quirks like this happen downtown, where everyone lives pretty close to everyone else and crossing paths must be statistically higher, I wonder how it is in suburbia, with its wide open spaces and car culture. Millions of people living their lives everyday in their own bubbles and only occasionally crossing paths.What a crazy world we live in.