My Conversation WIth John

As I was riding the Pinellas trail bike path near Waterboard, I noticed this gentleman sitting on the bench reading, two days in a row, Somewhat intrigued, I stopped on the pretense of needing to rest. This is, more or less, the conversation we had.

Me: Mind if I have a seat and rest?

John: (moving his cellphone closer to him) No.

Me: What are you reading?

John: (without saying anything showed me the book. It was The Air That I Breathe, an autobiographical book about a neurosurgeon dying of cancer.

Me: Ah. I read it. It's pretty heavy.

Me. (Thinking I'd recommend A Gentleman In Moscow) Do you read fiction?

John: No, not often. (At this point I thought he had some kind of speech disorder, but discovered he had an English accent.) I've been reading Eastern Theology lately. Mysticism, Bhagavad-Gita, Eastern Spiritualism. The Hierarchy of Heaven. It is all so simple and easy, you know? Not at all like Western theology.

Me: No, Christianity has a lot of inconsistencies.

John: Do that! Don't do that! That's how you train a dog!

Me: (Laughing) I've seen you sitting here reading. It's a nice place to read. Nice and quiet.

John: I live over there at Pinecrest. It's a nice place and the staff are friendly. But the people! They are like the Walking Dead. They stopped learning when they were 60. I take a book with me to the dining room.

Me: It serves as a wall?

John: Yes.

Me: Very effective.

John: It's like they stopped wanting to know things, they got old and stopped being curious. I'm 96.
Me: How long have you been here in the U.S.?

John: 26 years. I lived for a while in Tennessee. The people there were more curious than here.

Me: Oh, that wouldn't be my impression. (I said it low so he couldn't hear me.)

Me: You look good. Was it the genes or did you exercise?

John: I played a lot of tennis and football (soccer). I played it in my eighties. I tried to keep fit.

Me: Well, keep reading John and hope to see you again.

John: Humph. ( The humph was kind of dismissive like I'd wasted enough of his time. No further looks, just back to the book. I wonder if he thought I was more Floridian or Tennessean? I'm going to try to find him again when I go back. Then again he may try to find a different, more quiet bench.)

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