Well, I do understand that this is an obvious concept. However, I believe that it’s a very interesting concept. So many people. So many lives. So many stories.

My father-in-law would sometimes remark on the number of people in the world. We’d be driving on the freeway and he’d often pose the same questions that he’d asked many times before. “Where the heck are they all coming from? Where the heck are they all going?” (Sometimes he said “heck” and sometimes he said other words) Of course, we were a part of that same crowd on the road he was referring to.

I think about this obvious truth quite often – that there are so many people with so many stories. One of the most recent occasions was in the early evening this past Sunday. We decided to drive to Palisade State Park and take a walk around the lake.

It was a wonderful time of day. The sun was getting low in the western sky (I mean, where else would it be in the evening?) and the temperature was in the range of perfection. There were a few pairs of Canada geese who were honking and splashing.

By the way, in case you were wondering – yes, it is true that these geese mate for life. Pairs stay together in the wild for often 10 – 25 years. If a mate dies, after a period of time, the survivor will typically “remarry.” The “divorce rate” is quite rare – about 15%. (Humans could perhaps take a lesson from geese.)

Anyway, besides chipmunks and geese, there were also some people out at Palisade as well. We said “hi” to a few people and gave compliments on a nice fish that a young boy was carrying.

But it was a barking dog at a “two Mercedes van camp” that initiated the longest conversation of the night. Our “new friends” were two couples from Quebec, Canada. They were traveling cross-country to visit family members in Vancouver, British Columbia.

They’re planning to drive home on a trans-Canada route. They were fun people and Diane enjoyed showing off her French language expertise. They were duly impressed.

On our recent cruise vacation, we swapped life stories with many people. The “little town” of 2,200 passengers started to feel quite intimate in some ways, as we got more and more acquainted with people.

While sharing a table at lunch with an older couple (and I do mean older – they looked older than me!), I was fascinated by the conversation. They revealed right up front that they were on their honeymoon.

At one point, I finally asked the question relative to age, “So Tom, how old are you?” His answer: “Well, my biological age is 83. My chronological age is 96.” (So, he’s 96, but according to medical tests and standards, he’s a young 96.)

I didn’t ask Vaylerie (yes, that’s the spelling) her age. I’m often quite blunt, but I don’t usually ask a lady that question. (If I really want to know, I’ll ask when they graduated from high school. That’s a very thinly veiled method of asking someone’s age.)

Tom is a retired pharmacist – and also a retired travel agent. He’s been on more than 50 cruises and many more than 50 land tours. His new wife is anxious to continue a travelling lifestyle. And he seems ready, willing and able to keep up with it.

From the conversation, I learned what a “Mexican wedding shirt” is. Tom was wearing one and I complimented him on it. That style is his favorite traveling shirt. It has two breast pockets and also two pockets lower down on the square-cut lower tailed shirt.

Tom said a salesman tried to sell him one of those shirts when we were in Columbia at the port of call in Cartagena. He said that he told the salesman that he probably had more of those shirts than the salesman had in his inventory. I guess at 96, he’d been accumulating travel shirts for a long time.

We had multiple visits with a couple and their grown daughter from London. We had dinner together a few times and “hung out.” Lots of stories, laughs and fun.

I’m sure many of you readers have enjoyed and do enjoy the times of getting to know new people. New people are moving into Sanpete. And each one of them has a story to tell. It’s part of the entertainment of life. And we learn to understand and respect people as a result.

Some related quotes I like:

“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people, than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” – Dale Carnegie

“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Strangers are friends just waiting to happen” – Rod McKuen

I believe we should be interested in the people who cross our paths. Learn their stories and be willing to share ours. It makes our lives richer.

I also believe we should be interested in geese. But that’s another story. — Merrill