I ran into Byron today kind of by accident. I literally ran over his $100 bill. OK, I know I need to explain. Today, my brother surprised us and took off work to take us to the State Fair of Texas, or was it the Texas State Fair? Either way, we ended up in the fried capital of the world, wading our way through fried bacon, fried cookie dough, fried oreos, and even the most strict Baptists have to be intrigued by fried beer (stay away, your gag reflexes will thank you). The atmosphere was a culture shock all on its own, but at the end of the day, it was a great day out with the family.
Back to Byron. I ran over his full body sized $100 bill pillow that he miraculously won at one of the rigged games (I’ll avoid the tangent) as I was trying to weave my niece’s stroller through a crowd of picnic tables. My parents joined Eloise and my brother and sister-in-law as they took the tour of the petting zoo and I guarded the goods. Who needs to see overweight dinner anyway? So I went to take a rest, but ended up in a conversation, following my own advice from earlier today. The funny thing was, Byron fell right into the conversation with me.
I apologized for running over his pillow and was a little shocked when I saw the amount of gold that was in his mouth. He said it was no big deal, and then I asked him how he was doing. He gave me the polite response and reciprocated by asking me the same routine question. So, I told him I was great and having an excellent time with my family and was blessed that we were all actually together in the same town for once. After I broke the cardinal rule of small talk by actually answering the question, Byron broke too and asked me more about why we lived so far apart. It wasn’t long before I was telling him about the Philippines and the jail and the minors I work with. He thanked me for looking out for boys like that because they needed the direction.
Byron didn’t go much into his story, but he did tell me that he had been headed down that path once but was snapped back into reality fast. Right when I asked him what did it, one of those two seater strollers rolled up with twin 2 year old girls inside. He just smiled and picked up his “reality” and told me he had to grow up fast when he found out those two were on the way. So I thanked him for being a daddy and he walked away.
Our conversation wasn’t much, and there wasn’t really anything that came out of it, but I couldn’t help but walk away thinking the world had just gotten a little smaller. Sometimes we just get so focused on a job or task, that we miss the chance to just be in the world. I love meeting new people and just seeing the things that they hold valuable…
