Two or three Sundays ago I'm at Starbucks tutoring a friend in her bio class--which, I should add, is being taught in a way that's ridiculously, unnecessarily exasperating--and I notice a short-ish elderly fellow go settle down in one of the comfy armchairs in the corner. (Short-ish elderly fellows are generally awesome, if you haven't already noticed.) The gentleman looks like Albert Einstein: white mussed-up hair; mustache (of course!); some kind of good slacks & shoes I don't remember; and a sweater vest, the pattern of which reminded me of microchips and pixels (at least from where I was sitting--it might've been geraniums or some kind of sailboats for all I know or could see). He's got a green smoothie, which amuses me to no end because I associate smoothies with summertime and bike rides and nutrition-hipsters and just generally more casual things...not really sure where that idea came from, but it's there...so suddenly he seems a bit quirky and unstuffy and I'm absolutely delighted.
By the way, I can't figure out what on earth was in that smoothie since none of the smoothies listed on Starbucks' menu are green. Chocolate? Brown. Strawberry? Mauve. Orange-mango? Close, but not really green...I'm thinking more of a yellow? Maybe he had them throw some green tea macha in there somewhere. Sounds like he has good taste.
Anyway, he's sitting over there reading the Detroit Free Press, sipping on his green smoothie, and he's smiling with this amused/chuckling expression at the paper. And I'm dying to go over and ask him what he's reading about and why it's so great. To thank him for still taking the time to read the paper. To find out who he's been all his life.
Professor?
Physicist?
Plumber?
Pastry-maker?!
Are you a veteran? Do you enjoy G.K. Chesterton or H.G. Wells? Have you been to China? Do you have grandkids that you share whipped cream off your smoothies with? How did you win your wife's heart? Do you always grin like this? Do you maybe speak Hebrew, or Greek? Do you love Jesus or do you question Him in the uncomfortable galleries of your mind or have you sworn Him off altogether?
Why are you so happy?!
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