She was talking to the chair.

“ Jesus, tired as he was from the journey , sat down by the well.It was about noon”  John 4:6

I was waiting for a meeting to take place at a local coffee shop, at around 2:15 pm. Of course, as always, I was early. I arrived at the coffee shop at around 2:00 , got my coffee, medium black dark roast, and sat down in the meeting room that had been booked for our time together. I left the door open for the others to arrive.

Just outside the door, there was a woman sitting in a chair looking across the table to no one. She was seated as to to look out the window to see the traffic outside. There was an empty chair across from her with a jacket on it. And , she was talking, but no other person was there. I looked to see if she had a phone,or an ear piece, and did not see anything. She sipped her coffee several times.

She talked for almost ten minutes, and then stood up, took the coat from the other chair, and walked out of the coffee shop. So, who was she talking to during her time in the coffee shop ? She did not talk loud because I could not make out her words.

Maybe she was rehearsing for a job interview, She might have been the interviewee, and was practicing for the questions . It might have been a job she had hoped for her career, and she did not want to mess it up. She wanted to do well, and so she thought of questions her interviewer might ask.

Maybe, she had a tough relationship with her mother. Her and her mother had had a difficult conversation in the morning, and she was replaying it in her mind. She wanted to be prepared for the next time that they met, and she was practicing better techniques for listening and speaking up for herself. But, she did not raise her voice.

Maybe she suffers from mental illness, and there are many voices in her head . And this was a conversation with one of those people.  She never knows who might show up today or tomorrow, or  what the conversation might be about.

She may have been reciting her lines for the next play that she is in. . She was not animated, like speaking with her arms or hands, but the part in the play might be of a subdued, and quiet woman. She might be a boisterous and loud woman in real life, and she was practicing for a part that was really difficult for her.

So, my questions remain. I found it interesting to watch this woman. What prevented me just going and asking what she was doing ? Social conventions says, “ do not intervene” . The Gospel story is full of situations  about Jesus engaging many people who are different than him. He seems to be able to ask inviting questions with judgment. Maybe next time, I will be able to seek out the story in a new way.