MY FRIEND LYNDON AND I HAVE A COMMON INTEREST

When Captain John said in an earlier conversation that he considered me to be somewhat of a “Godsend” as I was the 1^st foreigner to ever inquire about accommodations at the Salvation Army, I found it more funny than anything and it was a statement I somewhat dismissed.  In thinking more about this comment though, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps there is any truth to Captain John’s belief.  Was God in fact the architect behind me being at the Salvation Army or is my stay here nothing more than pure randomness?  I’m not sure I can answer that question with absolute certainty, but one thing I do believe is that no one’s life is a product of randomness and if you believe that, I think that brings purpose to every event and encounter you have in your life—whether they are random or not.  I’d be lying if I said I’ve looked at life through this “higher purpose” lens every day, where you look at every stranger as a neighbor and every action as an opportunity to better the world, but it’s something I'm trying to CARE MORE about since I think it’s a good perspective to have in life.  

My volunteering today was very quiet, but I guess quiet for us in a day isn’t quite like the sitting on your front porch on a rocking chair kind of quiet.  Once I got back to the Salvation Army, I figured with me being a local by about now, it was my civic duty to read Thursday’s edition of the “The Telegraph,” which is one of Kolkata’s local newspapers, but after only about 2 pages in, I was approached by another senior resident by the name of Lyndon and he wanted to talk about woman and so I kindly obliged.  Let’s see....talk about woman or read about the village kid that hung himself on a soccer goal post yesterday because his family couldn’t afford to pay for his living expenses in Kolkata that would have allowed him to play on a local Kolkata soccer team—I think I’ll talk about woman for awhile.  Speaking of which, Lyndon absolutely adores them at the age of 65 and despite my resume in the category of relationships not having the same bulk of “extracurricular activities” as most my age, it’s easy for me to share in this adoration with Lyndon.  Like I told him, you hear a lot of people marvel over an artist and this piece of work and that, like Michelangelo, Da Vinci, and Van Gogh, but no artist or piece will ever come close to surpassing the masterpiece that God created in women.  Lyndon's response, "yeah...I could stare at woman all day long."  I think you can say that and not be a weird kind of stalker right?  How is it that I can feel this way and come across as not caring a whole lot about girls is quite simple really...I haven’t found the right one yet and I guess I'm not like most people these days where it seems like they put more thought into who to select on their kickball team when they were 9 yrs old than they do now in picking who to get in a relationship with.  In my humble opinion, a girl deserves 100% of a person’s heart, not 65%, so if I can’t find someone that will bring that out of me, I figure it’s best for that girl to stay on the market and for me to just drink Greek martinis and Manny’s at the Max back home.  

After talking with Lyndon and him probably getting a little "sexually" frustrated, I was then introduced to another resident by the name of Khan who has a separate home with his family about a block away from the Salvation Army, but that keeps a place rented out here as a bachelor pad. A glass of Indian rum later, I was off on his scooter, but that story will have to wait for tomorrow.