The most bizarre thing happened about a year ago. I wrote this short "essay" on the idea of "Turn the other cheek", quoting the same as Matthew's last post. It was on my mind after having a huge intelligent discussion with a fellow Catholic raised friend. I wrote it as a sort of journaling exercise, and it wasn't intended for anything in particular, I do that occasionally.

At the time I was going to college and taking the bus. It was winter, but it was relatively mild. When I got off the bus to transfer, this young guy comes up to me and says he can't afford the bus and lives about 1.5km away. It is rare that strangers ever ask me for anything, but I figure whatever, he can walk, and tell him I don't have any money (with a pocket full of change). He gave up on the bus right then and started walking. This strange guilt come over me, because I had just written that essay the night before, and I started thinking about it as he was walking away.

I get on the bus and the stop ticker is broken. It just keeps saying, in a robot voice, "Next Stop, Stewart Funeral Home" for ever stop on the way home. I was kind of creeped out.

A week later the same guy asked me for bus fare, and I gave it to him immediately and wish I could have given more. He thanked me, said his name was John, and that he'd buy me a timmies sometime.

... the next time I saw him he told me my sister was a lesbian (he didn't know her, thought I was someone else), was still bumming bus fares, and smelled like a mixture of urine and wet dog.

I really don't know what to think about the whole situation.

Thanks for reading! Continue on your way....

Somebody had obviously done that already.

In Toronto, stuff like this is pretty common....but in Sarnia, I guess not.

The strangest part about that article:

...so yeah, probably not as uncommon in that freakshow city...

I found that strange too. In particular, because it seems like it would make the gunman stand out, but the article implies that he's a pro. I don't understand, but meh.

Insert: Then again, it might mask his identity. Presumably his face was covered and he was wearing bright colors, and probably looked like some kind of construction worker. If that was the case though then how did they identify him?