So I'm sitting on MARTA (Atlanta's light rail system)going to the airport, early in the morning, after spending a wonderful weekend watching MaryAnn graduate with an M.Div., Robert lovingly plan their move to Springfield, and Caroline doing what she does best....stealing hearts everywhere.

I've got my nose deep into the latest issue of Vanity Fair, reading about the Oscars from Dominick Dunne's point of view when all of a sudden I hear a voice around me say something. I continue to read on about how Halle Berry hated the wide open mouthed kiss (with tongue) that Adrien Brody laid on her after she announced his name for Best Actor for "The Pianist," (she says he wouldn't have done that to Meryl Streep if she had been the presenter) when I became conscious that perhaps someone was trying to get my attention.

I looked up and there was a young girl, probably in her mid-teens, riding alone next to me (across the aisle). She said, "Ma'am, do you have any gum?" I always carry gum, so I dug in my purse and supplied her with a piece of Peppermint Trident. She was happy.

I'm thinking, unless it was life or death for me to bum something off a stranger, I'd never, in a million years, do this. And I'm also hoping that if it was life or death, that my adrenalin would take over for me, because I'm not so sure I'd even ask for help then from a perfect stranger on a train!

All in all, I think the gum chewing stranger on the train is a lot healthier than me, in at least this way.