A Pleasant Conversation

Was still half-asleep while moving around the breakfast area at a hotel in Topeka, Kansas.

My wife reminds me constantly that I don’t talk much around the house (certainly a lot less than her) so I wasn’t much expecting to get into any discussions.

I grabbed some eggs and sausage and was heading to the table when the woman who was setting out the breakfast asked me, in Spanish, if I speak Spanish.

“I know enough to know what you said,” I answered. “But I can’t speak it.”

“Oh, I thought you were Hispanic,” she said, in perfect English. “You know why I thought that?”

“Well, I have Italian blood,” I said. “My skin is darker.”

“No,” she said, laughing. “Your eyebrows are dark and your hair is grey. That happens in Hispanic men.”

“Really?”

Obviously I didn’t know that it was a Hispanic trait.

“My friends make fun of me for it,” I said.

“Oh! Very handsome,” she said.

Somehow we kept the conversation going and I learned that she has 4 daughters. One of them speaks 4 languages. Another is in her last year of college and her youngest just had a baby boy.

I normally don’t stop to converse. In fact, I’m usually wound so tight that I miss out on a lot of living.

I looked at the photo of her grandson.

Said what all people say when they see a baby:

“He’s perfect!”

I spent just 5 minutes talking with her, but when she said, ‘Have a great day,’ I knew she meant it.

And in the background the news station was blathering on about the remnants of the shooting arguments…

…which is infuriating…

…and for a split-second it crossed my mind that the little mini conversations between strangers is what is really needed right now.

Humanize the world.

All the rage has to be a thing of the past.

Won’t happen, of course, but my little conversation at the start of the day made my day go a little smoother.

Dark eyebrows and grey hair is a Hispanic trait.

Who knew?