Meetings

I see where the Pope visited with Queen of England for a little while today. They probably got along quite famously, I should think. After all, they both wear funny hats. Always a good icebreaker when meeting strangers; stress the things you share in common...

And so last Sunday at Church was grandparents day. Quite a turnout. Now given that some of these visiting grandparents might be of an age where they don't enjoy long walks to the Church door? I decided most Christian thing I could do was opt for the YMCA parking lot about 50 yards west of the Church parking lot. Already quickly approaching 11:00am, wheeled in, and there's a 1990 blue Mustang convertible in the YMCA parking lot! Ha ha, I'll park next to it, though that's a bit farther walk.

Turned out there was a human being inside that blue Mustang, and he wanted to talk to me!!! I breathed deep and whispered to myself 'Uhh-Oh' as he smiled broadly and asked, "So, you want to trade Mustangs?"

The pragmatic thing to do at this point? I should've told him, "I'd really like to have a polite, encouraging interaction with you, really I would. But Church is about to start. If I don't shake a leg, will be walking in during announcement segment, and I'll feel noticed. So you see Mr. Man, it's not you, really it's not. I gotta get to Church, where we gather to celebrate God's love for humanity, and His open door policy about listening to any human any time. So you see what kind of bind u got me in here, right buddy?"

That's the pragmatic thing to do. But I figured it was my own fault for parking next to Mr. Talkypants, so might as well take some of my medicine.

He asked how I was coming with my restoration, and without waiting for answer launched a torrent of words at me on his Mustang restoration. Told him I'm at least mechanically sound; motor has less than 30K miles on it. That impressed him.

Mr. Talkypants wanted to discuss fuel consumption. Told him mine is lousy, 20mph. He said how odd, since he's got a 4 cylinder and is about 20mph. Explained to him even though he's got an automatic transmission, should still be getting high 20's with that motor. Advised him to check fuel filters.

Then I went to Church, where I was a tad late, and likely missed announcement of the ladies sewing circle covered dish luncheon being rescheduled. I hope you're satisfied, Mr. lousy mileage 4 cylinder Mustang Talkypants!!!

Eh, most human lives, some kind of meetings are regular happenings. Just yesterday in fact, I was about to leave work when all of a sudden a meeting broke out! Though new to that factory, I'm rather experienced in conference rooms. In only 90 minutes, managed to assign projects to three other people, and only get one assigned to me. Not bad huh? Yep, I still got the ol' magic.

In all of our life meetings, there's somebody keeping score on our performance, and it isn't necessarily a human with a clipboard in a conference room. We should be mindful of that in all our encounters.

Why the windmill picture? Because it's a beautiful work of art, OK? Note how the artist juxtaposes the blue sky against the parched landscape. In composition, the eye is drawn up at a diagonal to the right towards the windmill, which is the focus of the work... I learned how to talk like that in Art Appreciation by the way. Best $850 I ever spent my entire life so far!

Little known fact about windmills? They get lousy gas mileage.