Not so single serving but still a good story
So my friend Ziad called yesterday and he had an extra ticket to some charity event that his organization had bought and he wondered if I wanted to go. I had no idea really what I was going to. When I walked in and sat down I found out that it was the 10th year anniversary of an organization Just Cause Oakland that works for affordable housing here in Oakland. I sat and thought how interesting, with my family history, that I was at this presentation. Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s my father worked on affordable housing in Chicago, organizing, protesting, etc. I kept looking around, occasionally seeing someone who looked familiar. And then I caught sight of someone who was about to walk onto the stage to give a speech. It was there surprise special guest. Turned out it was Jesse Jackson who happened to be my dad's student at the University of Chicago Divinity School and who my dad worked with at Operation PUSH for over a decade (I grew up running the halls). The last time I saw Jesse was 13 years ago when he showed up at our house after my dad passed away. After he spoke I immediately weaved my way through the tables to the side of the stage and caught him as he was coming off the stage. He barely looked at me and the other person who was there to shake his hand as he was moving towards the exit so as I shook his hand I reached in and said, "Al Pitcher's son." He immediately stopped, his eyes lit up and he pulled me in for a huge hug. He then grabbed my hand and led me into the back for a few seconds of chatting before he had to run...While it's not a single serving encounter, it's still like that...13 years later...
Definition: single-serving friend
(from the movie Fight Club) A "friend" you meet once, for example on a plane, and never see again.
Every day we pass through people’s lives, sometimes without even noticing that they exist. And half the time, they don’t even know that we exist.
This morning I went to the DMV here in Oakland, CA. I stood in the snail paced line up to the cubicled square island of stations, got a letter followed by a number, G202, and went to sit down in the interlocked plastic chairs for the computer generated voice to call me. Forty-five minutes later I finally got to walk over to station 17 and give in my documents. I walked up to a heavyset African-American women in a blue sweat suit with oval glasses. She barely looked at me as she roughly asked for my documents. I dropped something that she didn’t need from my folder on her desk, I fumbled to find all the things that she needed and she glanced at me with an obvious “hurry up” look of exasperation. Finally I gave her everything with a “I need to have my name changed on my drivers license, here is my marriage certificate.” The expression in her eyes changed and she smiled as she handed me back my application form saying, “you have to fill out this box and put your…maiden, i mean your madden, i mean your…i don’t know what to tell the groom’s, name on this line.” She started laughing and continued, “Damn, that’s what I want, a man who will take my name…Congratulations.” We continued laughing as I paid my fee and 2 minutes later I walked away from her station.
I will remember that 2 minutes for a long time. And hopefully she will smile from time to time as she remembers our encounter. Maybe it will be on a day where she is having a rough time and just needs a smile.
Who are those people you meet in a day whose life you may change for just a moment, who might change your life, who you brush by, who you make laugh, who notice you playing with your cell phone, who you talk to for a few seconds. I go to the coffee shop on Lakeshore every few days and order a large coffee, does the person who takes my order remember me? The light skinned woman with the buzzed curly hair, the man with the limp…
We spend so much time wrapped up in our own worlds that I want to challenge you to notice the “single serving” people who are part of you life. Write a story about someone who passed through you life today, maybe for just a second, maybe for a few minutes and remember the impact they had on your day or that, maybe, you had on theirs…
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