Roger Chow sits on the railing near the escalators to the platforms at Flinders Street station. Head bowed, his thumb scrolling through his phone with the idle movement of someone who’s killing time.

Unlike so many others who catch the morning train to the city, Roger didn’t catch the train in for work.  Roger was born and raised in the country; the city with all its strangers milling about in their own bubbles does nothing for him.

“People are not prepared to start a conversation because no one knows anyone anymore, no one is polite anymore.”

I put it to him that the people of Melbourne are generally friendly, they just need someone to pull them out of their bubble. People are willing to have a chat but they need to be approached first, their bubble needs to be popped. Roger’s response was;

“Here’s another theory for you, the bubble doesn’t burst because no one wants to burst their safety zone, but if there is a good vibe coming from the person you’re talking to, your bubble doesn’t burst, it connects to the other person’s bubble so you can communicate.”

“When they leave, I’ll have my own separate bubble and they’ll have their own separate bubble until the next person.  You don’t ever burst you’re bubble, you only connect with someone… if you burst my bubble [then] everyone can come in.”

Roger is very thoughtful, he never fully agrees or disagrees with anything I say but rather, he expands on it.

He describes himself as a very laid-back bloke from the country. He’s philosophical, drawing on life experiences rather than books.

I ask him how he arrived at such a philosophical way of contemplating life.

“My father is Chinese and my mother is Dutch. I’m looking at it from my mother’s side and from aspects of my father’s side as well.  If I was to believe in anything, it’s Buddhism. I’m not religious but I follow certain things.”

So are you spiritual, or would you not label it spiritual?

He pauses.

“That word can be used but I’m more open-minded about what I’m faced with.”

“I look at life as there’s no point of being horrible to people because at the end of the day, we’ve all got to live on this earth.”

“I open my views a lot more because I nearly lost my partner.”

Roger came to Melbourne to visit his wife who is in hospital recovering from a car accident.

“She nearly died just like that. So my philosophizing has opened me up a lot more than I would have been two to three weeks ago. It’s amazing what a near death experience can change in a person.”

“I realized I need to take a grasp of my life, my family and enjoy them while I’ve got them and while I’ve got a life because life’s too short.”

“For me, in order to achieve something out of life, I’ve got to give it first. So I give happiness, I give chances, if you don’t give, you won’t receive and that’s what my mother and father taught me when I was very young.”