The Stranger I Met Today

A fan of The Stranger I Met Today drew my attention to a SoulPancake video, entitled Take a Seat – Make a Friend.  If you’re not familiar with SoulPancake, it’s a media company that encourages followers to ponder, explore, and discuss ‘big think’ topics and provides platforms to do so.  The company’s tagline is “Chew on Life’s Big Questions.”   SoulPancake is a “brain batter of art, culture, science, philosophy, spirituality, and humor [that] is designed to open your mind, challenge your friends, and feel damn good.”  (With a guarantee like that, founder Rainn Wilson has me convinced that the SoulPancake website is the only site I’ll ever need.)

In the Take a Seat – Make a Friend clip, SoulPancake “hits the streets to see what happens when two strangers sit in a ball pit... and talk about life's big questions.”  (I included the link below.)  After reading it, I decided that I wanted to meet my next stranger in a ball pit.  However, I generally think that public ball pits are questionable for both meaningful stranger interactions and cleanliness.  But, I liked the set up of the two person random sidewalk ball pit in the video, so I started searching the internet in hopes of acquiring my own pit.  I’d have to place it in the perfect high pedestrian traffic area, I thought to myself as I clicked through the various ball and pit packages. 

I soon found out though, purchasing my own ball pit would be expensive.  And, there was an element of impracticability.  After three long minutes of searching, questions arose.  How long would I leave it up?  Where would I store it? How many balls would I need?  Would I have to have someone to guard it?  So, the ball pit is out.  But, I still want to go somewhere unexpected to meet my next stranger and learn a valuable lesson. 

Reader, I challenge you to decide where I should I go meet my next stranger.  All this time, I’ve been writing about where I’ve met my strangers and the lessons I’ve learned and haven’t once asked where you’d like me to go. 

I’ll accept suggestions for the next week.  Then, I’ll select the most unlikely, random place to make a friend and I’ll go there and take seat.  Just ask yourself, where would you send me to learn a valuable lesson?  You can comment here on Patch or visit my Facebook page – The Writing Blueprint – and leave your suggestions. 

Ball pit link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfHV4-N2LxQ