It’s monday, it is once again, grey in grey, and I have to go to work, where someone really irritated me last week.
I woke up unexpectedly at 5:05 am – the alarm does not go until 6:00am, so I started a post full of outrage about the brutality of police towards Occupy Wall Street protesters etc. - got caught up in the topic, did not have time to finish it and now have to race to work.
A colporteur (but not the one of this story)
There is a traffic jam.
….. you get the drift of how relaxed and happy I am at this point. I sit in my car at a red light – telling myself that I need to let go of all of this, that it doesn’t get any better by dwelling on it, getting down on myself, so that now, not only is the office, the traffic, weather, and life in general not my friend, I am beating up on myself as well. (R.D.Laing would have loved this)
And in the middle of my grumble-fest, I notice a movement outside the car – and there is a colporteur, he waves and mouths ‘good morning’ and goes back to his post.
Now, you need to know that here in Vienna, we have colporteurs – these are people (almost always foreign men), who stand at specific assigned locations and sell newspapers to passersby, often risking life and limb dancing through the traffic.
The location I am at now is one that I drive by daily – been driving past here for at least 16 years. In all that time, this one specific man has been at this post. He was there when I drove my daughter to 1st grade and then school for 6 years (she is now working on her Master’s Degree). He has been there every morning when I drive to work. I have had at least 4 different cars in that time.
Never once did I buy a paper from him (don’t read his brand). And this morning he makes a point of greeting me.
It is 28° F outside, he has on a fairly light jacket, no gloves and I notice that he has a number of teeth missing.
And I smile, and I am grateful to him, because now I can let go.
PS: and I started many sentences with ‘and’ here, please rest assured that it was done on purpose and gave me great pleasure.
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