My days are lightened and brightened every now and then by those random 30-second, 5-minute, half-hour, or other relatively short-length interactions I have with strangers I meet in stores and shops, at cash-registers, at the gym, waiting in line anywhere... strangers who don't expect to ever see or talk to me again, but who still take a little bit of time out of their daily grinds to quickly share something about themselves with me, whether it's a thought or a feeling, observation or experience, question or answer...

Though we will probably never see or talk again, we seem to enter into ultra-transient, totally non-committal friendships. Just for the moment, we are ol' buddies in the midst of an exchange...

The world sure does seem like a better, more humane place when people are willing to reach out and touch strangers, even if only briefly, with a hand of sympathy, empathy, comedy, wit, support, help, etc.