The topic of her eloquently written piece was "loneliness." This was my reply: The “purpose” your blog may serve is that it gives night owls like me a place to go to quietly read beautifully written thought provoking pieces. It is true: loneliness is manifested in so many ways. This city has the phenomenon of the lonely “doorman talkers” who stand for hours schmoozing with their doormen.
And I have observed that lonely night owls hang out in 24 hour Duane Reades. At 2 AM, they are making small talk with the cashiers or gathering around the chairs by the photo machines or sitting in the back by the prescription area.
In my local Duane Reade, last year I made an emotional connection with this guy Keith. He is such a sad lonely guy. Anyway, I had not gone in there for several weeks and one day I went there and he ran over to me and greeted me with: “Where were you? I have been here every night looking for you and waiting. It is so great to finally see you.”
When I left to walk back home, I thought to myself: how nice to actually be “missed.” And how nice to be missed by a guy who is almost a total stranger.
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