Cracker Barrel

I saw her walking across the dining room in Cracker Barrel. She looked all of 110; small, frail, and suffering from osteoporosis. She walked with a cane; each step could not have been more than a fourth of what once had been her active stride. A flashback hit me. I had been nearing the summit of an 18,000 foot peak in Nepal. Exhausted, starved for oxygen and cussing up a storm, each step I took was a forced effort and about half of my normal stride. Unfortunately, feeling the effects of the high altitude my attitude did not match the woman’s, who seemed determined, independent and appreciative of the opportunity to share a meal with a friend who had already made her way to the table. She could have been a daughter and she looked 90. Again I wondered if I should be so lucky to live so long. If so and I could only move that fast, will my brain constructively use the time to think of great things? In other words, if it takes one minute to physically do something and later the same task takes four times as long, does the mind fill that space? I concluded it does. Since I have been traveling in an RV it takes me a hell of a lot longer to travel from point A to point B. I am very aware of how long it takes me. Thankfully, I am not pushed to be anywhere and I use a bit of the time to converse with my Lord.

The waitress returned to my table and before presenting the bill for the Friday night catfish special, she asked if she could bring anything else to me. I said, “Yes, there is one thing you could do. You see those two ladies over there? I would like to buy them their dinner.” My waitress was shocked. “Do you know them?”

I did not have a clue as to who they were. That made it all the more baffling to my waitress and I can’t really say what prompted me to do it. I told her that she was not to inform the two that I was buying, but discreetly bring their bill to me.

Before I left she told me that she had had a really bad day, but my gesture toward the two ladies had turned her day around. “You are an angel.” I hardly think so. Her reaction and renewed spirit was unexpected and that made me smile.