Ping Pong and Paul

In the previous entry, I mentioned that tonight ended with table tennis. I have my paddle (Brits call it a "bat") here with me, and I have been searching for a place to play. Luckily, I discovered such a place earlier this week (I read about it in a pamphlet), and I found myself there for the first time tonight. I do plan to write about this overall experience another time, but for now I simply want to leave a reminder to myself about a guy a played with called Paul. He and I--not minding the others for a time--just knocked the ball back and forth for what surely must have been an hour and a half. The group became sparser and sparser as our practice session became more and more intense. Back and forth, back and forth, back and...net. Paul being the superior player, I felt a need to be sure he was getting in a good session. We were both pouring sweat...Paul, with his dreadlocked hair, old school Adidas shirt, and Jamaican flag wrist sweatband all soaking up his perspiration; and, I, with my red collared shirt and black dress slacks soaking up mine. Just think about the situation: my first night in a place containing only strangers playing a game that, while legitimate in every way, is not generally taken very seriously. And it came to a point where it was just Paul and I sweating out this practice session. We would have played until 3 am, I know it. But we were shutdown because the building managers had to set up for a seminar taking place tomorrow. Now, to me, this is not immediately a strange situation. In fact, I find myself in these situations often. Yet it really is an odd circumstance. Paul seems like a really good guy. Actually he seems awesome. But how do I know? How is it possible that people can connect in such a way with such ease and comfort? After being given the boot, we sat and talked for another quarter hour about the dangers of Fundamentalism. That's an absurd series of events. Two strangers, with a rift of age and origins between them, just shooting the breeze like close chums...because of table tennis. And I don't want to forget it.