new york minute

Delta only flies to Cairo out of JFK Int'l Airport in New York, and the late morning flights were all overbooked, so I opted to leave at 7:50, which turned out to be an excellent choice, and this is why:

On the plane, I sat next to a guy from Kennesaw State University whose father also works for Delta. Branden and I immediately hit it off, somehow managing to skip the small talk and discussing only important-type things. He was headed to South Africa the next morning to work on a service project with a leadership organization he is involved with through his school for a month, then to work on a Buddhist farm for a while after that. Early on in the conversation, he asked me if I had any religious affiliations or beliefs. I told him about Jesus and how I felt compelled to love him and oftentimes do so by loving and serving others (or at least attempt to do so) because of his Love and sacrifice for me. He told me that he was really interested in Eastern religions and, more recently, Lebanese philosophy.

We talked about cultures, languages, food, our families, science, faith, sustainability, and stuff white people like, including, but not limited to the following: religions their parents don't belong to, farmer's markets, organic food, diversity, yoga, nonprofit organizations, international travel, Manhattan, veganism/vegetarianism, architecture, bicycles, being the only white person around, study abroad, beards and scarves (well, we didn't actually talk about these two, but he had a beard and I was wearing a scarf despite the warm weather), integrity, native wisdom, platonic friendships (we were the embodiment of this), acoustic covers, books, following their dreams, and public transportation that is not a bus.

By the time we began our initial descent into the New York area, he asked if I wanted to head over to the city for lunch since I had about 6 1/2 hours before my next flight. I decided that since I was apparently already crazy for going to Egypt on a whim, that I would go. Neither of us were especially familiar with public transportation system, but we jointly navigated our way to Manhattan by train, arriving at the 53rd & Madison stop, just a block south of Central Park.

We ate at a place called Smiler's on the corner of 54th & Madison. It was a little market with a cafeteria-style feast of fresher produce than one would expect in the middle of a mega-city. I wish I had taken pictures. After lunch, I still had a little time to kill before I needed to head back to the airport, so we wandered around for a little while, continuing our five-hour-long conversation about nothing and everything. We exchanged contact information, and he promised to write me a letter about his experiences in South Africa. Finally we parted ways with a friendly embrace, and I descended back into the depths of the Subway system as he headed to the park to read.

I don't think I'm making this up, but it is still moderately difficult for me to believe that it actually happened.