I was in line with a woman to buy Christmas dinner. We had both waited a very very long time to be served by the butcher, and now were waiting to pay. She was huffing and complaining about the wait, the people out-of-town, work, etc. She said, doesn’t it get to you? All I could say was:
I am so grateful to have family to be with this year. I’m so grateful to have a daughter to clean up after and feed. I don’t mind waiting, because I’m buying food so I can make my family happy. And since Connecticut, I’m so grateful I can’t really feel to mad at any little thing like this. Line, no line, I’ve got my daughter. So I don’t mind.
She said she was talking to her son who didn’t want to go to school this morning because he was afraid. Of something might happen. And she told him he could stay home, if he really was so scared. But he had a report to turn in, and he felt responsible. And she was proud of him. And we agreed, each of us with one precious kid, that the child was what mattered. That we can go home and hug that kid, that is everything.
You know, you can be in a line and hate it, or be in a line and not mind it. The experience is yours, not the situation.
I said, well the world didn’t end today. And added, it was never the apocalypse. Mayans just have 4 thousand-year eras, and it ended today, like new years eve.
And she said maybe we are ending an era too. and maybe the next one won’t have things like what happened in it.
And she paid for her stew meat, and said happy holidays and was gone.
I hope she’s right.