The first and only cruise Jim and I ever went on was one to Alaska. The ship was embarking from Seattle Washington.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before and we asked the man taking care of our bags where he was from and found out it was Cambodia. He said he was so glad to be living in America because of the horrific experiences he had experienced there when he was younger.

He told us about some of that torture. Then he mentioned that he had never told his children what he had just told us and when I said that he should, he choked up. We had just learned of some life changing events in this man's life, who we had only spent a few minutes with that his family didn't even know about because it was too painful for him to relive.

The next morning at breakfast in the dining room there was a couple at the next table who had a cute little girl with them who was obviously their granddaughter. Because Jim spent time in the Philippines he said he could always spot people who were Philippine.

Jim could tell this couple were Philippine and we began talking to these strangers, me to tell them how much I admired how polite their granddaughter was and Jim to tell them about his experiences in the Philippines. What we were about to hear was a most interesting story from them. Their son was the first and only Philippine Navy Seal and had been part of the team that had rescued Jessica Lynch in Iraq just a month before in July 2003.

Why was this father lowering his voice when he told us this, I wondered and then realized he did not want to be boasting for the entire room to hear. He said the operations of the Seals are kept secret so they learned about their son's endeavor at the same time the rest of us did.

I remembered seeing pictures of their son in the newspaper and remarked about how handsome he was and his mother confided that he had done some acting. If we had not been eavesdropping we would never have known that we were sitting next to the parents of such a famous man.

When we were online getting off the cruise ship I noticed the man ahead of me wearing an astronaut jacket. I asked him if he was really an astronaut and he replied that he was one of the Japanese who had been on the space shuttle module. And here I thought he had just borrowed that jacket.

At the Seattle airport I began talking to a woman from the Philippines whose parents were from Manila and after working in the United Nations had moved back there after retirement. She was there to meet her friend, who had been in her wedding, and was coming from Beijing China.

Her friend and husband also were connected with the United Nations. I was interested in learning more from this stranger but suddenly her friends were there forcing the end of the conversation. I strongly recommend talking to strangers, especially from other countries in this our country, the melting pot of the world.