Day 17: “Hey Bradley!” Fame, fortune and flecks of stardust.

How can a simple Hello be so powerful?

We’re practically locals. We now know where all 4 supermarkets are, my dog even has friends and there’s an app to tell us which trash bins go out on which days. You can just call me a local.

My 10-year old is practically a city councilman, but for us older, than 10 years, things can take a little longer. It turns out, not that much longer.

Please forgive me, dear readers who live in places where you actually know your neighbors and might even recognize someone once in a while. I haven’t had that in a long time, so it’s still fresh and exhilarating.

It’s a law of science that the smallest of events can cause further events of infinite proportions. The flicker of a flame can burn down a forest. A tiny seed can grow into a redwood tree taller than any animal. A simple hello can raise the hairs on my neck and send geese running over my arms.

It turns out that it takes so little from one person to make another person’s day.

It wasn’t the mayor. It wasn’t the immigration service checking my brand-new credentials. It was the mother of a friend of my son’s. She recognized me at the open market on Wednesdays where I was buying a fresh (and terribly stinky and disgusting) mackerel for my dog.

We didn’t talk about how to cure cancer or take over the publishing industry. We talked about basketball practice and the camp where the kids were spending two nights in a nearby town. Someone in this town knew me, said hello and we had a conversation.

It’s not a redwood tree, it’s a seed.