Flawlessly executing my routine of stopping by Starbucks first thing in the morning after my self-inflicted beatings at the gym, I noticed this same guy I see most mornings making his way from his pristine car to the coffee shop. The guy usually drives a very slick Jaguar but this morning it was an elegant Audie. He's always impeccably dressed, a far cry from the sweat stained garb I usually have on. He orders his coffee and with book and coffee in hand he makes his way to a nearby table to enjoy a quiet morning before heading off to work.
Now of course being the dick that I am I immediately assume he's some pretentious guy, full of himself and his money. What the hell is wrong with me? In all these months we've never spoken a word except for this morning. While preparing his coffee he noticed they hadn't put out the creamer yet. As they brought it to him for some reason I blurted out, "Ahhh, we're gonna need that." He kinda chuckled and said, "Ya got that right, here you go" and passed it on to me. Wow, that was nice, and from a guy I just ASSumed was some snobby suit.
As he sat down and I was prepping my coffee I looked over and noticed he was reading a different book then the one from the other day. Feeling social I said, "So what are we reading today?" Just a simple question, not a lot of effort involved. He could have waved the book at me or just ignore me all together. But instead he showed me the title, mentioned the author and briefly described what it was about. I praised his reading prowess since he seems to read a couple books every week. Next thing I knew we're carrying on a conversation about reading, the virtues of eReaders versus bounded copies and how it takes some of us weeks to read a book while others blaze through them like they were on cocktail napkins.
I must say that was a nice happy jolt to my morning. A crappy ass illusion was shatter and in it's place a genuine expression of neighborly friendship. As I climbed into my truck I scolded myself for having such a negative perception of someone I didn't even know. But I also thanked God for giving me such a wonderful and simple experience all because of a simple phrase, "Ahhh, we're gonna need that." Who says there aren't decent folks out there? They're really not all that hard to find. Just remember, the first step in finding friendly people is to be friendly people.
It's really that easy.
