Starbucks

I can easily get distracted at Starbucks watching the interactions of others, immensely more interesting than editing my law review paper. It's really not my fault that interesting people seem to follow me everywhere I go, right? I must describe what I mean by "interesting" before I proceed. I do not necessarily mean someone who is brilliantly informed, has an amazing life-story, and is immensely captivating. I simply mean that some people are interesting in their most mundane interactions, and I am distracted by the observances.

Today there is a young woman with red hair sitting across from me with her macbook in her lap, and a scowl on her face. She is married, I believe has kids at home, and comes from a fairly wealthy background. To her right, and my left, is a man with striking similarities, the same red hair, but less of a scowl. He is clearly her dad. Just now she was on the phone talking to someone oh-so-important and her Dad tried to pass her a newspaper article to look at. When she finally got off the phone, she barked "What is so important." He asked her to take a look at the article, which I've just noticed is about the new "oldest person in the world." She shoves it back at him, completely uninterested. He reads a line from the article about her having integrity, etc, and said "That is the key."

I really do not know this family, and it is obviously none of my business, but if I got to have another opportunity to have a teaching moment from my Dad, I hope I would never shrug it off so callously. Life is precious, interactions are rare, Daddies do not stay forever.

I wish I could tell these lessons to the man on the street, or the woman who is too busy to listen, or to my three year old friends. But why would they listen? Who thinks it will happen to them? And mostly, I'm scared of the reactions. So I am telling them to you. You should tell them to others. You should never take life, love, family for granted. You should listen to your Dad; he is immensely more interesting than you, I guarantee it.