"Damn, everyone's eating dinner except me.", he thought.
Just as the man leaned back and closed his eyes to rest, someone sat down beside him on the bench. He opened his eyes to see a man, smiling as though he recognized him.
"How are you? Long time no see." the stranger said.
He was alittle surprised to see someone when he had just thought he was alone, much less someone who knew him, that he didnt recognize.
"Hey, I'm doing great.", he answered the stranger, "I'm sorry but I can't remember your name. Where do we know each other from?"
The stranger laughed, "Oh, it was a long time ago, I would be surprised if you did remember. We were young. I used to live real close to you.".

The stranger paused as if to give him time to think, then sighed and looked around the park. "I come here around dinner time alot because it's so peaceful and I can do some thinking.", the stranger said, "What brings you out this evening?".

"My car just broke down on me, I just got the damn thing fixed. My wife is on her way to pick me up. So I decided to sit here until she arrives. I actually haven't been to this park since my wife and I dated.", the man told the stranger. He looked around the empty park, "You come here often to just 'think'?", the man asked.

The stranger smiled, "Indeed I do, I comtemplate truth.".

"Now, why would you do that? To me, that would seem rather boring, no offense, mind you. I mean, right now, I'm sitting here talking to you, that's the truth. I think truth is boring, everyday facts.".

The stranger smiled, "Ahh, but I think about ultimate truths, basic truths like why is it so easy for people to have a 'hard life' and so hard for them to have a 'good life', when they simply need to choose to have a good life and they will?" The stranger paused as the man pondered this question.

"I don' believe it can be that simple, when the world is filled with lies and deceit", the man said, "Lies hurt people everyday, we are surrounded by them. You can't just ignore pain and suffering, and have the 'good life'.".

The stranger looked straight ahead and let out a soft sigh, "You have missed something. A lie never hurt anyone. Think about it..what is a lie? A lie does not exist until truth unveils it. It isn't lies that harm us, it is the truth. The truths we know despite the lies we choose to believe.
The truth is what causes the pain, but once it is accepted, we learn and become stronger.", the stranger explained, "Otherwise we go blindly through life accepting lies and deceipt as the false truths that guide us and feeling the pain of the truths we won't accept.".

The man nodded in agreement with the stranger and said, "Now that's an entirely different perspective on things for me, I like that."
The man and the stranger talked on for some time. The stranger talked more of truth and how people need only to make a choice for themselves to see truth and accept it, and how in any given situation, there is always a 'choice' to be made, and denying the truth is what makes for bad choices, but even then each person is responsible for the choices they make.

The man and the stranger fell silent for a moment.

"You are my age," the man said, "yet you seem to know so much. When I was younger such questions ran through my mind, and I do think of them now and then, but...". The stranger cut him off smiling, "but you always get distracted by the smallest things such as cutting the grass, having to go to the store.".
The man laughed, "Exactly.".
"It's easy to let yourself be distracted, but you'll find life itself is easier once you find truth.".

The man heard a car approaching. He looked up to see his wife pulling up in front of him. He turned to find the stranger gone.

"I didn't think I'd taken that long,", the man's wife grinned as he got in the car, "but here I find you talking to yourself.".

© R.Lore