There is an older man that lives somewhere in Brigham City (I am assuming).
He has walked the roads enough to wear them thin.
I just saw him walk past my house with a cane...swinging up and down...not using it to help him but more like a suave Dick Van Dyke with a prop sort of cane.
The significance of his walking past my house is that it is almost 10 am. I saw him on my morning walk this morning at 6:30 am.
I have seen him as early as 5:30am and into the late hours of the evening. I see him during the day...always the same walk with the cane swinging.
Seeing him makes me just ache to hear his story. I have imagined several in my mind. I have been sorely tempted to run out and just ask him...but somehow that just doesn't seem right.
I love peoples' stories. I think that is why I love the elderly. They have so much to tell. So much wisdom. They have seen and heard and experienced things that are so foreign to me in my life right now.
Everyone has a story. I sat in a meeting a week or so ago and judged the speaker. She is so so so perfect. Her hair, her family, her finances, her body, her calling, her everything. I keep telling myself "no one is perfect...she has her problems just like the rest of us" but it is so hard to imagine her in a messy home, or without perfect skin and hair. This got me thinking about peoples' stories. You just never know what people have gone through, are going through, or will go through. It makes me want to learn her story. Not to solidify my current opinion or to make me feel better that she is not perfect, but to understand what events and choices and experiences have led her to where she is now. What sorts of things does she struggle with...and how does she handle those things?
It just fascinates me to think of what we could all learn about life if we just knew peoples' stories.
I have this weird suspicion that if I could know Mr. Van Dyke's story...I would be a better person...just from knowing it.
Maybe, just maybe I can find out his someday.
I know that it would be better that anything I have imagined.
