Tea Party
So, one of the greatest joys of my life is people watching, reading between the lines, or driving through neighborhoods, that are much different from mine, and imagining what “those people” are doing. If you’ve ever been down West Paces Ferry in Atlanta, you know what I mean! It’s hard for me to fathom that their dinner plans are similar to mine. Like maybe there’s a whole line of food choices that only they are privy to, things I’ve NEVER heard of. I know it’s silly, but this is an example of the thoughts that go through my head.
Rest assured, it’s not just the upper crust that catch my attention. Before I retired from teaching, when I would have car duty, especially in the afternoons, I would open those car doors, and my wheels would immediately start turning. I would wonder if their homes looked like their cars! I’d be trying to identify strange smells, seeing if I could peep what was in mama’s cup. I went all in, just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Oddly enough, every time I see a homeless person, I immediately picture them as a newborn. I can almost hear his or her family spreading the word that the baby is here! A beautiful, squishy, brand new life. The center of someone’s whole world, but maybe that wasn’t their reality. Maybe they’ve never known love at all. Perhaps, they are mentally ill, or maybe in a weird way, they have chosen their current position. There are SO many questions! I can read between the lines, but that’s not where the truth lies.
The thing is, I’ve never felt like the busy body type. Physically, I stay in my lane. I’m not nosey, I just have an uncontrollable appetite to know the back story, if you will. How did you get to the point you’re at today? What brought you here? I REALLY love it when people tell me their “story.” Even then, we’re only going to know what one chooses to share. Bottom line, is that the science of humans is FASCINATING to me! We are such complex creatures.
My own story might even surprise some of you, but I’m happy to tell it, because it brought me to where I am today. Ya’ll, I was a terrible teen. I just about drove my parents crazy, and Lord knows, you couldn’t believe a word that came from my mouth! I snuck out of the house, ran away from home, and took up with the wild boy next door, that I was forbidden to see! All of this, before I could even drive a car. When I was 16, I left for school on an ordinary Tuesday, and came home a married woman! Six months later, I became a mommy at the ripe old age of 17. It was September of my senior year, not that I was even going to school anymore, because I was attending a private, Christian school, that wanted NO part of me, scandalous!! 40 years later, I still question the reaction. After all, we all came into this world via the same process, right, but whatever. I learned a lot about the kind of person I didn’t want to be.
Of course, that’s not my entire story, but that’s where/when it all started, so where did your story begin? What brought you to the place you are today? Am I the only one interested? I think not, let’s share some tea! I think it’s healing to hear from each other. It’s therapeutic to laugh with each other. It’s comforting to hear someone tell a story similar to yours. We aren’t that different. At the end of the day, we all go through the same things. Be good to each other. We're all human beings. Now pull up a seat and pour me some!