Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Elderly Wisdom

I had to make a return to Lowe's today.  W wasn't particularly enjoying himself, but this was the last stop before heading home.  Rather than lug him out of the car seat again, I decided to leave him be and push him in the shopping cart to make said return.
As I waited in line to return my refrigerator filter (glamorous, huh?), an older gentleman approached me.  He wore a lovely red plaid flannel shirt, a hat and a big grin.  His face was wrinkled.  His hands worn.  Crows feet were deep around his eyes and they puckered more when he smiled.  He was darling.  
He politely (almost shyly) asked if he could see who was in the little "bucket" (translation: car seat).
I smiled.  "Of course," I said, and stepped to the side.
The smile on his face got bigger and bigger.  He put his hands together, took in a deep breath and looked me right in the eyes.
"You know, we can learn a lot from these little ones," he said with all sincerity.  "I like to say, we adults feel like if you do this for me, then I'll love you.  If I do this for you, you'll love me.  But these little ones, they don't do that.  Unconditional love.  That's what that is.  They love unconditional[ly]."
I was a little taken aback at how sweet and sincere this man was.  I felt like I wanted to give him a hug.
"But there is one thing they don't love," he continued.  "A wet back side."
(exit the warm fuzzies!)
(pause)
I wasn't sure what to say.
"Me neither."
That was all I could think of.
The man smiled again.  Told me to have a nice day and walked away.

1 comment:

Lizbeth said...

hahahahaaa!! That could not have gone any better! Total movie moment right there