Characters

The Cosmos must have a more-important-than-usual message for me right now. This past week has seen me meeting three very unique characters.

First, I met a 91 year old man who, within 15 minutes of meeting me, revealed that:

• he had been raised in an orphanage for the first five years of his life
• he had been a soldier in WWII as a Nazi under Hitler
• he was now a proud Canadian
• he has donated blood over 50 times
• he is a practicing cross-dresser and transvestite
• has a book about his life written by a Calgary ghost writer.

He turned out to be one of the most interesting, lively, young-beyond-his-years and genuinely happy people I have met in a long time. Secondly, I met a woman in her late forties/early fifties of great material wealth, but who was living in such paranoia and exuding anxiety to such a degree that everyone around her (including several house staff that she has at her beck and call for much of the day) was living in a state of fear.

Lastly, this evening, I spent some one-on-one time with a man who I have known for some time. This man is unique in that:

• he spends the majority of his free time with his charity that promotes picking up litter, not using drugs and participating in sports (mountain biking in particular)
• is a race announcer
• has almost completed the process of legally changing his name to Crazy Larry

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be picking up from these folks, but I've enjoyed getting glimpses into some very interesting lives.