Anyone, really?”
We had come here to do something different. To be in the presence of something new. Something different from all the old, familiar advice about marriage and kids. Someone was standing by the lakefront to walk me through life.
He was white. He was smiling, and he looked like me.
“When I was a kid, my family was pretty middle class, and I was a big kid. Nowadays, we’re not.”
He looked into my eyes, and I smiled back. After a few seconds of silent conversation, he said, “I believe you. Because sometimes we all need someone to lean on, to talk to, who won’t judge.”
I smiled back.
We sat for a bit. At some point, he touched my shoulder, and I felt a warmth rush out of the place.
He leaned in.
His head turned side to side.
“Tell me about yourself. Do you have problems growing up? Do you have friends who are still in the world and need your advice?”
And I nodded.
It felt like we were getting to know each other, and the next thing I knew, he was shaking my shoulder.
He began to speak.
“When I was a little kid, I heard stories about God, but I never really understood it. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will understand.”
I was quiet and silent, and suddenly all the questions in my head flashed into focus: How did he figure that out? How did he know, so quickly, that he wasn’t like the other kids around him? And where were all these people he met who didn’t understand him? Did they hate him? Were they stupid? Was he a fraud? Was he not real? Or did he have a special place in his heart that had no other neighbors?
And even as I didn’t want to say anything else, I could feel the tension beginning to lift, because suddenly it could all be explained, understood, for the first time in my life.
“Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
And he took my hand.
“Why didn’t anybody tell you?”
I was silent. He stroked my fingers.
“When was the last time you had a real conversation, and it wasn’t just a game, like a puppet show?”
I wasn’t ready for this answer. I was still shaken
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