Talking up strangers

One of the things about buying second hand furniture over gumtree is that I end up visiting a lot of homes, meeting a lot of families, learning about their lives - for why else would they be selling their old furniture – the adventures they are off to or that they are just ending. I end up talking to them about their suburb and some of the secrets it may hold – the creeks, the rivers, the gardens, the music, the birds and the people – they are many many secrets hidden in Canberra. And, most often than not, I come back with a small piece of their lives into mine. Come to think of it, it is not very different to (inconclusive) dating – if you go there right, you come back with an awareness of how special people are and how unique their lives and attitudes are, or how much the same, and you come back with a bit of their life – an afternoon, a long conversation, a voice, a rhythm – in your own.

I am, these days, seeing a dentist – and rather enjoying it in the open-ended way that it can be enjoyed thoroughly. One of the things that I find most interesting is how "physical" the practise of being a dentist is, every time a hair dresser washes my hair or cuts them, every time I visit a beautician, the last time when I had to be pulled out water by nearly the scruff of my collar – I am nearly always appalled by the rather sudden intrusion by a stranger into my personal space. To be constantly into other people's jaws and teeth and bones – well that would be something, right?