Sharing Present Time
I was on the subway reading Rita Davern’s article about Irish-heritage USers, in the July 2014 Present Time, when a young woman next to me saw the title and got interested. She said her husband was Irish heritage (he was sitting next to her), and so her daughters were, and she was curious about what that meant.
I talked to her awhile, asked about her own heritage (Salvadoran and U.S. white, with a lot of other things mixed in), explained that Present Time was the magazine of a peer-counseling group, and tried to keep her talking. Then my stop came, and on the spur of the moment1 I said, “Well, if you’d like to read this, I can always get another copy.” She and her husband were thrilled to take the copy of Present Time. Who knows what they’ll make of it.2 You never know. But now I need another copy for myself. And another to share!
Susan Whitlock
New York, New York, USA
1 “On the spur of the moment” means on impulse, without premeditation.
2 “Make of it” means think about it.