One of the things I most dislike to do is go to the grocery store after work. It just always seems so crowded, and I tend to buy food I don’t need because I am hungry. I try to buy just chicken and fish, along with a few good vegetables, but when I get to the checkout and look down into my cart, all I see are potato chips, Oreos, and a box of Goldfish crackers. If it’s a good day, there might be stray carrot rattling around on the bottom of the cart. All around, it just isn’t my scene, bro. Today, however, my dreaded trip to the grocery store was made more interesting by two men. That’s right—two random men.
I heard the first man before I saw him. I was getting a dozen eggs from the refrigerator section, when a voice close behind me said: “It’s ok to talk to yourself. It’s even ok to answer. But when you talk to yourself and respond with ‘Huh?’ that’s a problem.” I turned to see a totally tricked out cowboy standing behind me. Tight jeans, plaid shirt, scuffed up cowboy boots, and a black hat. I knew immediately that he was a bad cowboy, maybe a bandito, from the cowboy hat. We all know that the good guys where the white hats. Still, I felt no fear, just curiosity. I opened my mouth to speak, but the cowboy was already in the process of tipping his hat and turning to leave. I stood there by the eggs, dumbfounded, wondering what might possess this bad cowboy to whisper something so quizzical in my ear. Hmmm…
Not to be distracting by such shenanigans, I headed to the produce section. As I stood picking out tomatoes, Roma tomatoes as I don’t enjoy the taste of any other, an older gentleman approached me. “The world is going to end,” he began. “Soon, too. It’s the end times and that’s why it’s so damn cold outside. You better pick out some ripe tomatoes, cuz you ain’t got time to wait for them to ripen.” Not wanting to be rude, I simply responded with, “Well, thank you, kind sir, for that good information.”
Now if you are waiting with bated breath for a profound lesson to be taught here, keep waiting. I ain’t got one. I would, however, like to point out that there are fascinating people wandering around our world with fascinating ideas and if you and I are open to receiving what they have to offer, our lives are more interesting. So often we wander through life with our eyes to the ground because it is simply much easier to avoid having to speak to anyone. But what might happen if you lift your eyes and greet that stranger with a smile? You might find out some important information, just as I did.
There is something else I would like to point out as well. Normality, convention, playing by the rules—I contend that those ideas are totally overrated. Wouldn’t you rather be a curious cowboy who whispers strange truths to a middle-aged English teacher who is standing by the eggs than the guy or girl who always does what is expected? You know you would. Granted, you might not want to live your entire life as this cowboy, but occasionally reaching out and doing something odd or daring might be a really good thing.
My trip to the grocery store was made much brighter today by two strange men—indeed, strange. But as I stood in the checkout line with my cart of goodies, I smiled because I knew that I had just been blessed in an odd and wonderful way.
