A brief encounter with a stranger has a huge, long-term effect on my life
Anyone who has ever been a boss knows that the fantasy can be better than the reality. At times, it feels like you are being pushed by those above you and those below you until you are squeezed together in the middle, trying to preserve some smalll bit for yourself. Owning and running the company doesn’t spare you. Now you have your clients demanding more for less and your high priced, in demand employees also demanding more for less. While it's not always like that, this particular week the politics and demands had been rougher than usual.
I couldn’t wait to change into comfortable clothes, grab my overnight bag, and drive to the train station. The stop and go traffic seemed like one more cross I had to bear to reach my destination – a weekend babysitting my little nephew. I saw his face in front of me as I persevered, finally found a parking spot and dashed into the train station. There I was assaulted by panhandlers begging for money, food and cigarettes. My last nerve was gone by the time I took my seat and relaxed. Nothing but a pleasant, restful hour-long train ride stood between me and my favorite person in the world.
I opened my book, lit a cigarette and embraced my aloneness. Then I heard it – a male voice coming from across the aisle – could I please have a cigarette? No, I loudly retorted, no you can’t have one of my cigarettes. I’m sorry he said, I’ll be glad to buy it from you. I didn’t have time to get a pack on my way to the train. Chagrined, I apologized, explained the tension that had been building and handed him a cigarette. He said he knew all about pressure building and erupting and we started talking.
We were both young and upwardly mobile. We started talking about superficial things and found we had a lot in common. We opened up to each other in the way you only open up to strangers. We were both in computers, both liked it, were good at it, and both successful. However, what we focused on was how it didn’t feed our soul. We didn’t feel at all fulfilled chasing electrons around and yearned for more. He was second generation Russian and sent his old computers back to family in Russia where they were cherished. He also helped new Russian immigrants, paying for their dental care because their teeth were all in terrible shape. I thought about all the volunteer work I had done for various women’s causes and talked about how much I missed mentoring women who were just starting out in business. As my business had grown, my time for mentoring had slowly eroded until it came to a complete stop. We talked about priorities, how much money we really needed and how important it was to do things that made us feel like we were making a difference.
The time flew by until finally the train reached my destination, I said good-bye and handed him the rest of my cigarettes. It was little enough payment for someone who had kicked me in the butt and gotten me thinking about a more balanced life. It never dawned on me to exchange contact info with him. Our intimacy couldn’t be sustained long term. We were already committed to lives far apart from each other. But our brief interlude had a long-term effect on me. As I walked away from the train station, I felt a small spark of excitement knowing that my future would always include time spent motivating and inspiring others.
Kimberly has gone from a well-paid female executive one minute to a desperate woman the next. Thinking her day can't possibly get any worse, she finds out how wrong she is when she goes home. The only way to set things straight is to get even.
(Charlestown, Rhode Island) - Welcome to AILEEN’S GUESTHOUSE where locals and lodgers have more in common than first meets the eye. And, there's plenty of blame to go around.
