When the only shelter is occupied

Wednesday, November 3, 2021 (07:30)

Today I took the morning bus again. This time I was the first to wait at the bus stop. It was raining, so I chose to stand under the shelter. A boy came shortly after me. It was one of the two boys whom I interviewed two days ago.

What happened now is something I have observed many times during the last twenty years here in Estonia. And it is something I never had seen before, in Belgium:

He remained in the rain for about 5 minutes until the bus came.

I saw him only from the back. He seemed to be watching something interesting, which happened to be in the opposite direction. His behaviour clearly showed that he doesn’t want to enter into contact.

I remembered a joke I had seen some years ago: Finnish Nightmares #25

But I also remembered a story from my childhood, Two older boys scaring little Luc. I concluded that obviously my interview with them had not been received quite exactly as I had meant it.

This story is another example of how often I am the bull in a china shop. It tells me: learn to be prudent.

Does this also mean I should stop making spontaneous interviews in buses? Not so sure about this. But I might choose my partner more wisely. Women and children are likely to misunderstand such attempts of starting a dialogue. A few hours later I repeated the experiment, this time on a young man who was wearing an earring with a cross on each ear. I took a few minutes to prepare my attack. I waited calmly for the right moment. When it came, I asked him: “Who is Jesus for you? I mean, because I saw your earrings.” This time it was more successful. He grew up in the Netherlands in a Christian family, but he stopped cultivating his faith after childhood. I told him that Christian foreigners can meet every Saturday at 18:00 in the Cathedral.

Follow-up: A stone falls from my heart.