“Life is beautiful
not because of the things
we see or do.
Life is beautiful
because of the
people we meet.” 
Simon Sinek

I love meeting people. Getting to know someone new energizes me. It nourishes my soul. To the best of my recollection, I’ve always been this way. Perhaps this is what prompted my childhood neighbor, Sam Young, to bestow upon me the unofficial title The Ambassador of 38th Avenue when I was just a kid. It might also explain why some have said that I could strike up a conversation with a fire hydrant! While I think that’s a bit over-the-top, I readily admit that I thoroughly enjoy opportunities to meet someone new — anytime, anywhere. 

In recent months, while walking at the Valley Fair Mall in San José to get my exercise on rainy days, I’ve connected with two different men. Both happen to work as security guards. Victor was guarding one of the doors connecting the mall to Nordstrom. Greg was standing, as he does for eight hours per day five days per week, outside the entrance to an upscale women’s clothing store. He was so personable, and smartly dressed in a suit, I had to ask him if he was working hospitality or security. Meeting both men was providential. In my twenty-minute conversation with Victor, we realized that my sister, Cathy, had been one of his teachers at Corpus Christi School in San Francisco back in the ’70’s. I enjoyed listening to him share his fond memories of time spent with his favorite teacher. I’ve enjoyed multiple conversations with Greg, a retired hospital worker, who lives in a home close to Bellarmine College Prep. We are close in age, so we often discuss the challenges and opportunities of getting older. 

I have met some of the most wonderful people unexpectedly in random locations. I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts that I met and enjoyed a one-on-one breakfast with the legendary UCLA men’s basketball coach, John Wooden, in the dining hall at Bellarmine in the summer of 1974. During my yearlong stay in the Bahamas, I met the original Fuller Brush Man at a resort on the island of Exuma. And I met Hall of Fame 49ers running back Roger Craig standing on the sidelines of a high school football game in the late ’90’s.

In the early ’80’s, the father of one of my students invited me to join him for lunch. While on my way to Lake Tahoe for a short vacation, I had stopped to watch a preseason 49ers practice session at the summer training facility at Sierra College in Rocklin, California. My student’s Dad was the defensive coordinator for the Niners. I accepted his invitation to lunch, not realizing until I got inside that I would be sitting at a table for four with him, 49ers head coach Bill Walsh, and CBS sportscaster John Madden. I felt just a tad out of place, but what an amazing experience.

In August 1984, having just started my new job at Saint Lawrence Parish in Santa Clara, I attended a social event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the parish. It was there that I met my wife, Kathy. I sure didn’t see that one coming!

Poet N.R. Hart wrote, “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.” I could not agree more. When I met Kathy, there was something there, something different, that drew us together. Similarly, but to a different degree, there are others I’ve met in my lifetime with whom I also connected instantaneously. 

Author Erin Matlock pointed out, “There are people you meet who become impossible to forget. They were not sent to you by accident, but instead, were destined to open a doorway to a different version of your life.” I feel blessed to have had this experience multiple times in my 70 years on earth. 

Avijeet Das is a poet and writer. He wrote something with which I completely agree. He said, “We don’t meet anyone by chance.” The serendipitous meeting of significant people seems to be a recurring theme in life. Whether we meet someone at a social event, in the workplace, at a church service, standing in line at the grocery store, or in the lobby of an island hotel, meeting new friends, friends with whom we have a strong, natural connection, offers tremendous possibilities for our lives.

Who knows? Maybe there’s someone out there right now, someone you haven’t met yet, wondering what it would be like to meet someone… like you.