Thursday, April 15, 2021
Recipient:
James @ Trader Joe's, Congress Park
We will get to James in a moment. First, a trip in the Wayback Machine.
Woburn, MA, c. 2001:
My poor bashed-up car was at the body shop and I had decamped to a local convenience store to wait for George to finish the repairs. Tiring of my crossword puzzle, I began to observe the cashier at work. A bearded 30-something with a warm smile, greeting customers by name and picking up loose strands of prior conversations: Is your mom feeling better? How'd your daughter do at her game? He asked strangers about their days as well; he was an equal opportunity kindness-spreader. I thought, "This is something special. You may never know his last name, or invite him over for Sunday dinner, but you feel that much better for having been in contact with him. That's the sort of person he is. That's the kind of person I want to be."
The next day I told this story to a regular patron at the coffee shop two doors down from my work. He said, "There's a word for that in Arabic -- it's baraka, which means blessing, and also can refer to the person who's bestowing the blessing. And you are that kind of person."
Back to James:
We had a funny conversation about my reusable bag habit collection, and the merits of reusable bags as travel souvenirs. When he was done ringing up my purchases, he went on to make friendly inquiries of the next customer: How was your day? Any plans for the weekend?
Animated. Lively. Chatty. Pleasant. Buoyant. Present. He was a joy to meet.
Later I thought of the cashier from 20 years ago.
Different personalities, same end result -- we crossed paths, and because of you my day just got a little brighter.
Baraka. May we all aspire to this in our own ways.
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