People

I was walking Fox early this morning through the park. Given I was outside and I have both vaccine doses, I took my mask off as I left the courtyard of my building. At the park, I saw a young couple standing on little pillars stretching their arms to the sky. At first, I thought they were doing yoga (people in Seattle do that kind of stuff). Instead, they were taking selfies with Elliott Bay in the background. They saw me with my dog, said hello and asked if I lived in Seattle. 

They were visiting from South Carolina on their way to Alaska via the ferry. In the before-times, it wasn't uncommon to see visitors from the East Coast out in Seattle at 7:00 a.m., with their bodies are still in a different time zone. 

I said visiting Alaska was on my post-pandemic trip list, along with riding motorbikes through canyons near Moab, Utah, and visiting rainforests in Central America. We talked about how cold it was in Seattle this morning, and how hot it is in the south.

"There will be long hours of daylight now in Alaska, the midnight sun thing. How long are you going to be there?" I asked. 

"Three years," they said.

"Three years? Wow," I said.

"We are in the military and will be stationed in Fairbanks," they said.

Wow again.

"It was on our bucket list to live in Alaska," they said.

This was the first conversation I've had with strangers where I could see their faces. This was the first conversation with strangers who weren't selling me food or were another dog owner walking their pet. 

I saw their smiles and felt their warmth and an ephemeral friendship as we emerged from the other side of the quarantine. I read ages ago that it is these small connections we make with people who are outside of our inner circle that bring us a necessary kind of social interaction and comfort. They were from another part of the country, heading off to adventure, and I was one of the many people they will meet along the way.