Unacquainted, we slept side by side in the parking lot---she in her massive, luxurious truck, me in my trailer. In the morning she said hello---beginning a 16 hour conversation as we toured the town together---talking our way through New York--New York, MGM GRAND (caged lions upset her), The Monorail, Flamingo, Caesars, The Forum shops, Art galleries, Waltzing waters etc. 
She drives this sumptiously appointed behemoth for a livelihood. It has bed, fridge and assorted storage places for her specialty foods---said she rarely eats at truck stop restaurants. Though widely educated she chose this vocation as compatable with her inclinations---needing considerable space to pursue her interests---one of which is to occasionally make her way deep into the interior of Brazil for esoteric study and experience. 
Without hesitation she plunged into this experience---breathing flavored oxygen for 20 minutes.
----while being massaged with an assortment of machines---said afterwards she felt exhilerated.
I take up the pose of the "perfect man" David--behind me.
And do the tourist thing---which is not worth mentioning. The point of this blog is that perfect strangers were willing and able to engage for 16 hours. One of those rare serendipitous connections where the "window of welcome" freezes open and you chat undefensively, without agenda for hours and hours---beginning with the superficial---moving through the personal---to the profound and philosophical. Strangers often can go deeper than intimates--knowing they will likely never meet again. Would you tell an intimate stranger the things you feel strongly about? I did---she did!
What do you think we REALLY want when we talk to someone? Here's a guess: TO KNOW THAT WE'RE NOT ALONE --in our being, our feelings, our folly.
How can you tell if this stranger is in tune enough with you to engage beyond the trivial? I feel people out by asking ever deeper questions, noticing defensiveness, ideologies, degree of good will and openness. When I strike a vein of good will I follow it to the gold. SHE WAS GOLDEN!
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