Eavesdropped wisdom

It seems that some of the smartest things I ever hear are from homeless and/or crazy people. (see here, for example...)

This week was no exception.

I was in the Barns and Noble on 86th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, just walking around the part of the store with art books, foreign language instruction, and music books. I glanced down one isle to see a man gesturing and speaking aloud.

He was clearly having a conversation -- leaving room for the answer, making gestures and whatnot, all while flipping through a book. I wasn't sure if he was rehearsing a play, having a conversation via bluetooth headset, or if he was, well, nuts.

Turns out the latter was the truth. (Nobody reads a dictionary page-by-page for that long...I should have known from that alone!)

I decided I had to hear what he was saying, so I went and looked at French-English dictionaries...for much longer than any human ever needs to.

I wasn't disappointed. The two things he said that I wrote down were:
"Life without love, what kind of life is that? ... You could give me a million dollars, but what's that without love?"

He then went off about happiness and faith. I took a small break listening to answer a question in a side-conversation about the store's hours as well as something else in the neighborhood.

I continued to listen.

"Thank god for god. I know that even if I don't believe in him, he could (as he gestured to his sides and front), you could, or even she could. And if that keeps just one person happy, that's good enough for me. Thank GOD for god."

Perhaps the thing most fitting about these tidbits is how I documented them.

I had been looking in the store for gifts and had a memo opened on my blackberry entitled "Gifts". The Gifts memo now contains 2 book titles (and their authors), and these two quotations.

Fitting...