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Anyone who's ever taken an undergraduate writing class at an urban university has encountered a thousand essays and poems that either have or could have the title, "The Amazing Revelation I Had From My Unexpected Conversation with the Crazy Guy on the Bus." There's something about being away from home for the first time that makes people so open to everything -- I know I wandered through my freshman year of college in an almost unbearable state of excitement, talking to strangers, trying everything (I'm talking mostly about my course selection, don't get excited), and accumulating sensory experiences like an alien just arrived on the planet. Like any self-respecting wide-eyed 18-year-old, I was obsessed with talking to the people every one else ignored: the washed-out townie at the diner in the middle of the night, the homeless lady with her army of homeless cats.

These days, not so much. I've become an expert ignorer of anyone who seems like they might need something -- strangers, oddballs, children. But Art Decker's post "Getting To Know Yourself By Looking Outward" on IlluminatedMind.net has me rethinking my "never-make-eye-contact" policy. He writes of our national obsession with getting to know ourselves through introspection, and suggests that "perhaps some of the time we spend reflecting could be put to better use living and engaging." I was really hoping he'd say that to know ourselves better we should wear pajamas and read in bed all day, but fine, whatever.

He writes that after a chance encounter left him feeling energized and inspired, he "vowed to meet a stranger every day." The post describes some of his amazing encounters with people he would have never spoken with had he not taken on his "beautiful experiment." (Read the whole post for the scalp-tingling conversation he had with his pharmacy cashier.) After a few months of talking to strangers, Decker writes, "Without a textbook, without a plane ticket, without really much effort at all, I’ve gained more insight and traveled further than ever before. And, I’ve also gotten to know someone I never knew that well before — myself."

If reaching out to a fellow human every day can do anything to deepen our self-knowledge (or really, even if it can't), isn't it worth a shot?

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