AN INTERESTING DAY: Pooping dogs & crying women [M, 3-14-22]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

So, I did two things in one morning that I haven’t done in a long time.

First, I slowed down and stopped because the man who was walking his dog was waiting at the crosswalk. No, that wasn’t the thing. I always stop when I see someone at a cross-walk, for the same reason I wear a mask during a pandemic. The “thing” was what the man did…

…he wanted to give me one of those friendly acknowledgment waves, the thank-you kind. As he and the dog started across the street, he waved at me with the hand that wasn’t holding the leash. I suddenly realized that he was waving a bag of dog poop at me! That’s sort of a mixed message. It was a big dog, too.

The second thing I’ve done often, but not recently. I made a woman cry.

I’ve done that a lot through the years, but the tears were usually from frustration or irritation. And I haven’t done it much at all for two years, since I’ve not been permitted out I public, where there are strange women who don’t know to avoid me.

I went to Morgenstern’s Book Store, to buy Helen a birthday present, and get a cup of coffee. I sat in an area where a woman was finishing up working on her computer. We got to talking, because she had some time to kill before picking up her granddaughter, and you can’t be masked while drinking coffee. She told me about something she has been wanting to do for a long time, and I told her it was time for her to go ahead and do it, that she was ready, that there was no reason to wait longer. When a person who looks as old as I do tells you to get busy before it’s too late, you have to take it seriously. She started to cry. She wiped away tears as she said, “Thank you. That’s what I needed to hear today.”

 

Among other things, I bought Helen one of those “What I Love About You” books, where each of the 50 pages starts a sentence but gives you a blank or two to fill out. Some of those, 

like “I love to kiss your _________” are surprisingly tricky to complete.

 

All in all, an interesting day.

John Robert McFarland