Curiosity

What do you do? 

So how does that work? 

So, I read an article about its use to treat returning soldiers and why it was not working. Is that really the case?

So, what do you think about ...?

So, why would it not....?

So who is....?

The questions would go on and on, until perhaps he realised his subject could tell him no more, at which point he would start his usual playful socialisation. All the while I would just sit there and admire 1) his courage to be inquisitive in front a stranger 2) the amount of information he gathered in that short span of time 3) his thirst to learn and 4) his endless curiosity. He would repeat it with the next stranger we came across and he deemed to have something he could learn from. Any recognised expertise in anything under the sun, from sports to economy to business to farming never went untapped. For me, it was a refreshing change from the usual questions that began with 'what do you do' and ended with a slightly more detailed elaboration of  'what do you do'. With him, it always began with a So, but what came after was anyone's wild guess.

Good habits can be infectious and at one point, I caught myself parroting him with wondrous results. One retains information better when heard than when read and that attitude to treat every person like a walking Encyclopedia, not just broadened my own knowledge of everything that happened around me, but it too deepened my respect for others as individuals with something to offer me that did not have to be material. Not that I retained most of this information in the long run, but new information, stories, they have this ability to inspire some renewed confidence in the world as a place of endless wonder and opportunity. 

That is how I realised, despite our brief sojourn, that he had left an indelible mark on me. We do come across so many people who undoubtedly have an impact on our day to day lives. Though it is on the rare occasion that someone comes along who changes the way we behave, think, talk and therefore who we essentially are (hopefully for the better). When the realisation of that change happens, it is indeed a special feeling.