BART is the home of the bizarre. At least when I ride, it is. All of the most strange, unique, weird, and sometimes even disturbing things I have witnessed since moving to the Bay Area, I have witnessed on the BART. I have a new incident to add to the list.

I sat behind a young man. The car was not very full. I settled into my book for a half hour ride. The young man in front of me started talking. He was sitting by himself, but his voice was deliberate, so I assumed, he was on a cell phone. He wasn't. But he wasn't really talking to himself either. Then I realized he was reading out loud... and not just anything, he was reading the Bible.

REALLY?!?... I wasn't sure what to think or do. It was the book of Esther, and by looking over his shoulder, I could tell he was on the fourth chapter. Random. Mordecai was mourning in a sackcloth. Huh? Just as abruptly as it began, it ended. And, just as abruptly he left. Not even at a stop.

I had no idea what to think. I wasn't even sure what had happened. This was no evangelical reading. Esther doesn't work for that, and his tone was not one of preaching the good news or bringing God's word to the masses. Did the text just grab him so intensely that he had to voice it? Is that just how encounters the text--it must be read out loud? As intentional as the reading sounded--his voice was formal, and pronounced--he was reading to no one in particular. What did I see? What did I hear? It was so inexplicable that I wondered if I imagined it.

It also made me wonder about our public voice. If I chose to just read something out loud on the BART to everyone or no one, what would I read? What would I say?