Why I Miss Bill Clinton (and other thoughts):

Anyone who rides public transportation on a regular basis can likely regale you with stories of human comedy and tragedy. There's a lot going on on wheels and rails around town. Those on the 5 last night certainly have a story to tell. My husband once witnessed a domestic dispute that turned to taunts to "pull out your gun," which thankfully did not happen. I've been on a bus pulled over by the police looking for "a leather jacket" - I'm assuming they were looking for a person wearing a leather jacket, but this was not specified. On the lighter side, I also listened to a man talking at the back of the bus once (there's always that guy at the back of the bus) who insterted a long "ahhhhhhhh" between every other word, like this: "So, ahhhhhhhhhhh, I took the, ahhhhhhhhhhh, guy to the, ahhhhhhhhh..." and so on. My first thought was, "God, I really would not want to transcribe an interview with that guy!" And then I thought, who has these thoughts?!?

But mostly, I find riding public transit engaging because you just never know what you're going to hear or see, or what chance encounters you might have with the divine in other folks. This morning, I had an encounter with a man at the train stop at Lake & Hiawatha. I caught him out of the corner of my eye and just knew he was going to approach me, I assumed for money. When he said, "Excuse me!" I braced myself for impact. He began the conversation with how nosy people are at the train station. I assumed he meant himself since I certainly had not made any move in his direction. The conversation was fairly nonsensical, as I think he likely suffers some mental illness. When he asked me if I thought he was "good looking or not ugly" I told him I wasn't sure how to answer that question. His reply was, "Well, maybe I'm somewhere in between." Without a pause I said, "Maybe we all are." At this response I was met with a huge grin, baring a gold tooth, a thumbs up and, "Thank you Jesus! God bless you." And we parted ways.

As I waited for the train, something continued to resonate in my spirit about being in-between. Given my new acquaintance's demeanor, it might make the most sense to dismiss his "Thank you Jesus!" as just another crazy thing he said. But I don't think so. I think there was something for me to hear in his words an my own.

The truth is, I feel in-between a lot of things most of the time: indeed, good looking and not ugly, smart and stupid, holy and hellian, mother and career woman. In-betweening is a source of a great deal of stress and angst for me. I would rather have things clear and delineated. Yet, I know better. Spiritually, I know it to be true that I live in-between worlds. I'm a sojourner in a world that I am called to love yet called to leave one day for a new land. Liminality is my reality, whether I choose to embrace it or not. This morning I embraced it. Who knew revelation was waiting at the train?