January 24, 2003
Time's coming for you too
It's not a widely known fact but I'm a pretty sentimental sort of guy. So when I read this piece by Rachel Lucas it reminded my of one of my own stories.
About 5 years ago I was in line at a grocery store. An older guy was ahead of me in line. Alright, a seriously geezed out old man was ahead of me, in the express aisle, fumbling with change and his discount card. For a brief instant I was just as peeved as most folks might get at the delay.
Then it dawned on me, time is passing for all of us. At some point I'm probably going to be just like this guy ahead of me, old, slower and a little confused. Heck, I'm confused now so it's not like adding old and slow will be a big change. Anyway, as I'm leaving the store the guy's got that 'waiting for a taxicab that's not coming for at least an hour' look on his face. So I asked him if he needed a lift. He was just going around the corner; about three blocks. What a pain in the ass, to be old, live three blocks from the grocery store and have to fork over 5 bucks just to get home.
Since I didn't look like some sort of whacko he took me up on the offer. He was pretty surprised to see my driving my old Cadillac converitible. As I stopped to let him out he asked why I offered him the ride. I said "At some point I'm going to be old too. I figure it's a good idea to help people while I can. Maybe when I'm old I'll get lucky and somebody will do the same thing for me." Call me crazy but I figure banking up a little good Karma credit can't hurt.
Besides, he seemed like a fun guy. That kelly green sweater and just go-to-hell bright yellow pants were pretty funny. To get a laugh and bank a little good karma doesn't happen everyday.
