I find myself in the strangest situations sometimes. As a musician, computer programmer and business owner I like to consider myself an intelligent person well rounded person. I’m come to realize intelligence comes in many forms and as for  subways and train stations you wouldn’t consider me an Einstein. The kayos and movement with deadlines and rapid decisions with maps I can’t seem to read.


So one day I need to take a train from Como Italy to Milano. Easy enough! Right? I was proud that I had little trouble making the ticket. I have a little practice up till this point. All seems good I’m doing this, the training wheels off, “look at me no hands ma!!!” Finally the train takes off with me in it (Can’t assume anything here) and I go about my business. Fast forward about 40 minutes an d the train slows down and my first thought is it must be train traffic and I go about tapping on my phone or whatever had my attention. After about 20 minutes I’m wondering to myself this is some delay so I want to see the expression on other peoples faces. Upon looking around I can’t seem to find anyone. Not to strange because sometimes your the only one in the car. I walk to another car the same and another car the same. Now I think to myself “WTF! I’m the only on this train!!!”
“Where the hell am I?” I pry open one  of the doors and step onto a platform where workers are gazing at my like an alien getting of a space ship. Turns out I “spaced” and took a ride to the train yard where this car was place out of service. Yes, I was on a parked train!  One worker helped me walk over the tracks signaling other trains  “stunod crossing the tracks”.  All along the other workers huddling seeming have me as the top of conversation. Eventually getting on another train and waiting yet another half hour, the train began to move. Ironically the first stop put me real close to my destination.


I guess if there is a lesson here it is if you find your self on the wrong tracks in the wrong place, get off the friggin’ train and get on another you may just end up in the right place!……

A beam of light majestically runs down the hillside as the sun slowly advances its path announcing the alba of a new day. Gentle breezes, the sound of birds and in between  the sound of silence echoing thru the labyrinth of small streets seemingly leading to no where and suddenly here I am. 

*Alba means dawn in italian.

Life is so unpredictable. I know no religion except my experience to
be able to sense the outside world thru reason and feeling.

I know of no parting waters or large scale miracles. For me, if there
is anything divine in the world, it comes to me in the smallest gifts.
It's the ray of light shinning thru the trees and thick dew on a early
morning. The sip of an excellent glass of Chianti.  It's the sound of
birds upon waking after a great nights sleep. It's simply the sunset.
It also comes to me in the most random of ways. This Sunday morning
while working on my computer, in Starbucks,  with my large mug of coffee
sweetened with a big scoop of chocolate, I was touched in a way that no
Sunday mass could ever. No preacher or religious text could give me this experience.

As I was buried into my own work,  focused ever so intently on my
computer screen, the sip of a coffee was the only momentary
distraction followed by my complete emersion of my full consciousness
back into my computer screen. The world disappears around me when I am so focused as in this very morning. It was in this moment that a voice
from right next to my ear sounded. It was a question that took me out
of my moment, an elderly gentleman, a bit frail, a bit of an accent
but not distinguishable as to where asked me, "Are you a
Photographer"? You see I had been working on some photos on my computer and
this man was positioned slightly behind me so he could see my screen.

I am one to treat everyone with respect. So I politely answered that I
was not and I was hoping to get right back to my work. After all, this
man interrupted MY private moment by looking at my screen and asking
me a question.  I wanted to get back to MY own personal world.  He
then just started telling me about himself. "I was a photographer for 20
years, I used to shoot weddings" he said with his thick accent. I
dared not mention that I was in the wedding business because I wanted
to get back to my works. What was important to me was getting back to
what I was focused on doing at the time. He seemed like a real sweet
and innocent man but this was MY time and no one else's. I felt a bit
like maybe it was time to leave,  after all my battery on my computer
was almost finished. Yea, I was ready to politely get out of there.

"What is your name?" he asked. To be polite I said "My name is
Carmen". He quickly responded with his accent, "Oh, how nice my name
is Carmen also!". Sparking now a bit of curiosity , I asked him if he
was Italian. He said, "why yes I am, I am from Abruzzo, Italy". NOW he
had my full attention.

What began so random and our conversation may have lasted 30 minutes, he kept
speaking to me in Italian and I was amazed because I was understanding
100% of what he was saying. Turns out se was born in the same region that my
family originated. I could feel his smile and somehow  “I” with no effort at all had given
this man such a joy of a human connection. The joke, so to speak, was
really on me. There was no longer a photo on my mind, nor was
there any space around us, there was simply me and this strange man
with my name. I hung onto every word he said as we laughed about
things that we had in common.

Leaving the Starbucks I was sure wanted to give him my number. I found myself 
hoping we could get together again for coffee, maybe even the following Sunday.

When I think about this experience I get a bit welted up. It's so
beautiful at its essence. It was a moment of pure joy, a simple
pleasure or maybe even a gift from somewhere.

Every so often I have one of these gifts touch me and for me the mere
fact that they happen make me so grateful to be alive. My every sense
at this moment feels supercharged. I don't need to know if a sea ever
parted nor do I care, I just need to have coffee with a random
stranger named Carmen to allow me to stop and appreciate my life.

I never did get Carmen’s number and I never saw him again but I’ll always cherish 
that encounter and quietly hope to be interrupted again.

Carmen-Circa 2004

As an addendum a few years later I’ve come up with this thought:

You may stand on a thousand shores yet never see beyond your shadow or 
speak with one stranger and explore the universe.

Carmen circa 2013