Staring across my cluttered desk, I spotted a elderly gentleman headed toward my office. He meandered across the breezeway to my door. Without knocking, the door slid open and his head poked inside. He looked like the kind of guy that has been retired awhile and has plenty of time on his hands. This is the kiss of death for someone of my lofty position and status.
“Here we go”, I thought quietly, “another 30 minutes of my life, gone…”.
Sure enough, he planted himself in the chair on the other side of my desk and asked the dreaded question:
“Do you have just a minute?”.
Somehow, it never works out to be just a minute.
I politely said, “Sure, what’s on your mind?” while trying to stifle a grimace.
We covered topics like:
- “What do you think about “X Brand” car? Is it dependable?”
- “I sure am going to miss your predecessor. He was a nice guy.”
- “I remember a trip me and a buddy of mine made. His car didn’t get near the fuel economy mine did.”
- “Back when I lived on the farm, we helped our neighbor in hard times. Not like it is today”
- “I remember helping my dad plow a field for a man who wasn’t able due to being ill.”
The longer he talked, the more I could see his life’s story in his eyes. He loved to tell of the days when things were “good”. Things were like things were supposed to be, “back in the day”. He took me back to a time when the hurried life didn’t exist. He took me back to a time when the “gotta have it now” mentality didn’t exist. I bought into this society he described. I embraced the feeling of love he presented before me. How awesome his world must’ve been.
How refreshing it was to stop, take a deep breath and listen for a change.
The tension in me fell away. My clenched jaw relaxed. My blood pressure dropped a few points. This man moved me to one thought:
“Slow down and listen”.
That was my lesson for today. Take the time to listen to the story of another.
Inside every human being there is a lesson that is waiting to be discovered.
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