One.

The theme of this week's rambling is memorable people we've met once. For the millions of sleeves we brush as we fly around this planet, there's times when people can mark our memories, our souls... only if we let them.

Like Jackie, a/k/a Seat 9B (I kept the ticket)
Last October, two people met who had a lot to tell and no one they felt like telling it all to besides a complete stranger. What's more magical is that we both seized the moment. It's the only time I ever bought wine on an airplane. We didn't need a sign to tell us we were destined to share those 5 hours together, but we got one anyway. At one point, we got bored with heavy discussion and played "20 questions." I only needed 4 to guess she was thinking of an elephant. After we got off the plane, a flight attendant stopped us and asked if we dropped something. She was holding a stuffed elephant. We looked at it and then each other at the same time, mouths open like we were trapped in a bad Meg Ryan flick. (was there ever a good one? And Top Gun doesn't count.)

Anyway... she came up in conversation yesterday and I later tried to tally up all the kickass, "soul-marking" people I've met only once. The people who randomly appear in dreams, thoughts or Saturday conversations. Well, here's what I came up with:

(in no particular order)
1. Seat 9B
2. Rabbi Stephen Leon, who took me into his congregation as both a reporter and a fellow Jew on my first night of Hanukkah in El Paso. I had no idea I was lonely until I joined in the candle-lighting prayer. I even still knew the words.
3. A saxophonist, jamming out on a bench near the Public Gardens. It was pouring. I'd just finished my 1st Walk For Hunger. I sat and listened to him for a good 10 minutes.
4. A parent who approached me the day after I reported on a fatal ATV crash. She (and a dozen emailers) chastised me and my station for reporting the fact that this father of 2 and respected businessman was drunk and speeding when he killed himself. It reminds me how vigilant people are to hang on to the main thing I want to strip them of: Ignorance.
5. A girl dancing to a live jazz combo in my favorite D.C. bar. We were both... not in states recommended for operating heavy machinery. We went outside for air and I got her to sing me an Irish folk song. I have no idea what her name is.
6. Craig Scott, brother of Rachel Scott, the first girl to die in the Columbine shootings. He stopped at Las Cruces High during a nationwide school tour, spreading "Rachel's challenge."
(for more: http://rachelschallenge.com/IAccept/tabid/1595/Default.aspx)
Witnesses say Jesus, MLK and Gandhi had auras of beauty and strength so intense, you could nearly see them. In 24.5 years, I've felt the strongest aura in the presence of Craig Scott.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
...


Who have you met? Share with us. Maybe together, we can reduce the our global degrees of separation to 5.

***

In an unrelated story of interconnection: I realized today that I still had the Red Sox' 2006 schedule on my fridge. I decided to ask Mom for an '07 one as I walked to my mailbox. The first thing I opened was an '07 Sox Schedule via Mom.

Thanks, Mommy. And happy birthday on Monday :)