Crosswords Make Us Sociable

People chat pleasantly with each other in public--total strangers--over crosswords.  This I have noticed.  It is very easy to feel like a human being when sitting at a counter, or on a train, and discoursing in a lively fashion over crossword clues.  Conversational pacing, sharing the talking-space, (I'll bet there is a term for that) all are easier when corralled by the limits of the puzzle.  And the topics tend to be engaging and pleasant!  The older I get and the more I see, the more grimly serious I grow about these matters of sociability and pleasure.  Job status and money don't matter--do you know who a "Burquh-wearer's God" is, or how to spell "yurt?" 

Eventually we are all going to be dead, and everyone and every thing we ever knew or loved will be swept away.  The amount of goodness we can leave behind in the world will be one of the few things that will matter.  By behaving well in public, having innocent fun with strangers over all the strange matters in this wide world, we can add our light to the sum of light, that will shine on generations to come.