Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Anonymity

We have a customer at work who comes in for lunch most days. He sits by himself, and has his two course meal, and a couple of glasses of red wine. It's hard not to strike up conversations with people who become regulars, and this particular customer is amazing. He's so interesting, and always has time for which ever waitress it might be to talk to him. From what i can gather, he's had the most amazing life, and been all over the place. He has told me of this small village in Switzerland, which sounds like my ideal place. It's a real life fairy tale village apparently, especially at Christmas when all the lights come out. Sorry, I digress slightly. I guess my reason for posting this is because, although we see this man almost every day, and have incredible conversations with him, nobody knows his name. I've been quite tempted a few times to find out what he is called, but then I stop myself, because I quite like the anonymity of it all. I like the fact that we hardly know anything about this man, and yet at the same time, we know so much, and vice versa. We can have talks about anything, and it doesn't matter, because technically, we are still total strangers. I have had many an in depth conversation with people whilst on a bus or a train, where I've completely opened up and spilt my soul to a person who's name I don't know. I think those types of conversations are among the best you'll ever have.