This is a really touching and sad story about a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who ran away on his way home from school and lived for nine days in the New York subway system. He had previously run away for a few hours and spent the time riding trains, so the parents’ turned their attention that way from the start. It’s not clear how hard the police searched, but even when the missing persons unit stepped in and focused on the subway system, it still took another three days and a lucky glance from a subway worker to finally find him. He was just riding trains until the last station, then switching routes, with periodic stops at the Coney Island station to use the restroom.

He lost sense of time. He was prepared, he said, to remain in the subway system forever.

No one spoke to him. Asked if he saw any larger meaning in that, he said, “Nobody really cares about the world and about people.”

At first I thought about the sad commentary on society. Countless subway riders saw him, sat next to him, passed him in stations, and saw him living out of his backpack. Just another homeless 13 year old? Vendors sold him potato chips and snack food, which is mostly what he claims to have eaten.

Then I thought about his mother. Kids with Asperger’s have difficulty expressing their emotions, so it’s hard to connect with them. But it’s apparent in her words that she tries:

“I tell him: ‘Talk to me. Tell me what you need. If I ever make a mistake, tell me,’ ” she said. “I don’t know, as a mother, how to get to his heart, to find out what hurts.”

It’s a gift to share our emotions and burdens with each other and truly connect. But so many of us have a hard time making emotional connections with people we love (let alone really caring for a lost stranger). For those of us who can, who don’t have some faulty wire in our minds making it harder, may we connect now while we can — with our children, friends, parents, and innermost selves. May we have a love that looks to others, that flows, and sees the lost ones. I’m sure they’re around us almost every day. May God give us grace and prodding to do that.

Speaking of prodding, I read this today. God bless Jim for his journey and questions.