Love from Strangers
{ Life }
August 1, 2008
One dark and dank night in Birmingham, U.K. I was walking alone on the campus of the University, near the canal on the western edge. It had been raining for a million weeks and the whole country was flooded. My shoes were wet and the low-pressure sulphur streetlights made every color look like dark blood. I was homesick and baffled, and no one likes Americans much so there was that problem, too. There was no one I had known for longer than a few weeks for thousands of miles.
My chin was tucked in–it was cold, cold, cold–so I didn’t see the bundled man, stocky and whiskery, until he was near me and as he passed me he said:
“Cheer up, love.”
With a Brummie accent straight out of central casting, wide open and working class, and completely unrestrained and unaffected.
No other encounter with a stranger has ever affected my outlook so much.
Anything like this ever happen to you?
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i call other people love all the time. i think it very sweet. can’t say anyone’s ever called ME love…
however, usually the attempts of strangers to cheer me up come across as much more aggressive and uncomforting. apparently i have quite the sour aspect most of the time…