Sitting on the train next to a woman talking to herself (or so I thought). I was kind of tuning it out until she started repeating “This boat is so small and the sea is so wide.”

My first thought was that this was the truest thing I’ve heard all week.

And then I was truly astonished to find out that she was reading my mind, verbatim.

“How do you do that … the mind-reading thing? Did you always have this gift? I am truly astonished” I said.

She was born that way, she said, as was her mother, as was her mother’s mother, and mother’s mother’s mother, stretching through mothers of mothers all the way back to biblical times. All the way back to Jochebed, who was both the mother of Moses and wife of Amram who was also her nephew, although she may have been Amram’s father’s cousin according to the Latin manuscript, The Septuagint.

Regardless of whoever Jochebad was, I was so impressed with the telepathic gifts of this woman on the train.

Even when she said, “don’t be too impressed.” She went on to explain that her ability to read other people’s minds was limited to thoughts about large bodies of water.

I said I was still impressed because she could do something I was pretty certain I could not do.

She said, “don’t be so sure.”

That might be true, I thought, but how would I know?

And then I began to recall all of the moments throughout my life when I was trying to express something vital to someone who was not really listening. I just assumed their minds were preoccupied with thoughts of the sea. But I always dismissed that assumption because it’s wrong to assume anything about anyone. No matter how many times your assumptions turn out to be 100% accurate.

“Now you see what I’m talking about,” the woman said, as she stood up and stepped out of the train, which fortunately had come to a stop.