It Doesn't Take Much To Toss Out That Life Line

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This old gal…

Had another Progressive moment…not HER moment exactly…but awkward enough to be sufficiently painful…

Standing in the line at the Post Office…a long line…a mailing holiday packages line…been there 20 minutes…couldn’t help but overhear a conversation directly behind waiting me…

An older gentlemen…cute…perky…so merry and bright…addressed the man between us…tall…fortyish…all business grinchy-like…pointing out a large mural of the city…the back-in-the-day city…

Omg…he says…I remember when the city looked like that…there was this place by Devil’s Backbone blah blah blah…we used to go there and blah blah blah…

The young man hmmm-ing…avoiding eye contact…angled away…but this man so full of goodwill kept engaging in that awkward Progressive commercial-like way…

And the struggle was real for eavesdropper me…so very very real…and internally it went something like this…

Stay out of it…Rescue the man…Ignore it…Rescue the man…Don’t do it…Rescue the man…

And so she did…rescue the man…made no secret that she’d been eavesdropping and turning around joined the conversation…

And just like that…the ice broke…the awkwardness gone…and three of us chatted about the past and change and how big the town has grown…

And so it is…in life…sometimes it’s none of your business…and sometimes you show good will to man and toss out that life line…and when that life line involves chatting…one of us…was more than happy holidays…to do it…
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And this husband of mine…agrees…