antkind passage

      I tell him I'm busy.
      He nods sadly.
      Then I think, Be nice; he's an old man. Then I think, Not too nice; I don't want him to think every time I bump into him, I'm going to stop for a long conversation. Then I think, Someday I'll be old, what if no one wants to talk to me. Then I think, Oh no, karma: What if I'm not nice to him, maybe something bad will happen to me. Then I think of that movie where Meg Ryan turns into an old man. Not that I believe in that sort of magical nonsense, but the movie does make some valid points. And not that Meg Ryan is by any stretch of the imagination old now, but it does make one remember about how she was once the girl next door and how we as a society keep trading in our old models for new ones. Then I think, This old man was once young-as young as Meg Ryan used to be. But no one can see that now. We are stuck in the present. An old man is old. A young man is young. A boy is a boy. We can't see life as a journey. When we are now is not where we started. It is not where we're going. It is essential to see this old man not just as a reminder of my own mortality, but as a person, someone who might have had or might still be having a fascinating life with fascinating thoughts.
      " I have errands," I say.