Chance Encounters for the Second Time

One of the things I prefer about city living over suburban living is the invariable chance encounters you have as you're going from Point A to Point B.  Yesterday morning, as I was taking the kids to the park, I bumped into a former classmate of mine, who works for the City's budget office, and we talked shop for a few.  And then in the afternoon, as Amy and I were walking the kids to the Penn campus, we ran into a former co-worker of mine, who is back from two years abroad and who caught me up on his goings-on.  Two times out of the house, two chance encounters.

Contrast that to more car-centric suburban areas, where the only encounters you have from Point A to Point B are with other enraged drivers on the highways or the intersections.  You're literally walled off from the rest of the world in your climate-controlled steel-encased conveyance. 

Sure, it's nice to listen to surround sound, control the temperature and humidity, and distance yourself from the riff-raff.  But there's something healthy about being out and about in the city, rubbing shoulders with the people.  In an age where disconnection and segregation are destroying us from within and without, it's nice to be reminded that we're connected as humans.  And who knows, along the way, you might have some pleasant chance encounters.