This just in: Have you ever taken a moment to just look at a stranger, maybe at the airport or in a line ahead of you or walking down the other side of the street? Have you ever looked at a stranger and wondered, “Who is that person? Does he have a family? Does she laugh easily? What does he love or fear?”

I know I have.

I wonder why the people I know well are a treasure to me. Did I just get lucky or is this a potential that every person has? If I knew more people well, would I find that everyone has value to me; value as a person; value as an addition to my life experience?

I have in mind an experiment.

I am in the early “thought” phase but if it works out, I will expand it.

I am going to take 2 people that don’t know each other and randomly pick one to be the “asker” and the other the “answerer”.

I’ll give them a relatively short time, maybe 10 minutes.

Their instructions will be for the asker to learn as much as they can about the answerer. Not things like names or ages. More like, “What would you ask someone if you were interviewing them for a spot in your life?”

After the question period, I’ll ask them both how they felt about the experience.

I’ll take this data and expand/change my process.

Ultimately, I see a website where you can go through a catalogue of interview videos.

The goal will be for us to see how the richest thing in our lives, our relationships with others, is just right there; right in front of you in a line or serving you coffee or living across the street.

I’m open to suggestions. Soon I will be looking for a way to get volunteers to participate. I may use this blog to solicit for them. I could even do this online with a Zoom meeting.

Time to save the world.

Up, up and away…

Jim