Do You Talk To Strangers?

Talking to strangers. Is it easier than talking to your sister or parents? That was my mistake for a long time. I thought the stranger at the grocery store wanted to talk to me while we waited for the cashier; at the bank while one guy went crazy because there were no funds in his account and while we waited for the bus that was late because of road maintenance.

They were not ‘talking’ to me. They were using a free pair of ears. Free, because the people we live with, the people we feed, clothe and love sometimes put buttons in their ears to shut us out. They call them headphones or ear buds. I used to accommodate strangers and contributed to the conversation, only to discover that their point of view is diametrically opposed to what I believe in. In one rally, one woman tried to recruit me for me for a certain political party. How is that possible? I’m alone in that booth during elections and I’m a great fan of voting because we could not vote in South Africa during apartheid. We were the majority, the African majority and we were not citizens.

There must be something about me that tells strangers that my ears are ‘free.’ Maybe it’s my head. I shave it because I can’t afford going to the salon and three hours is a lot of time, to be sitting in that chair, doing nothing. That is how my ears are in public view. Seriously though, there are scary people out there. They might have tattoos and other self-hatred thing going on in their faces. We don’t approach them and vent our anger about traffic lights being out of order, again.

We cannot stop some strangers from complaining about the government or atrocious service in shops, but we should not ‘contribute’ to the conversation because that’s not the point. They just want a free pair of ears to listen to them. The people they live with might have cotton wool in their ears called headphones or ear buds.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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