Total Strangers

My day today did not turn out exactly like I planned. Do they ever? Originally I was expecting my son to pick up my car and have it serviced. He works at the dealership where I purchased the car. Well, he got busy and pressed for time, so he asked if I could drive to the dealership and simply wait while it was serviced. I really didn't mind but it was unplanned. One of the things I had planned to do while he had the car was make some homemade chicken soup. As a result of having to take the car myself, my plans were accelerated. I quickly cooked the chicken and got the stock and noodles ready so I could throw it all in the crock pot before I left home. When I arrived at the car dealer I realized that much of it was being renovated. The customer waiting room was actually a trailer in the parking lot. In a short period of time I found myself with a very friendly and diverse group of fellow customers, most of whom were very talkative. There was an elderly white man who was the same age as my father, an African American attorney about my age, an openly gay man who proclaimed that he had been in a committed relationship for the last 29 years, a young man of Philippine descent who was a doctor, a quiet, elderly African American woman who never spoke but sometimes smiled at the conversation, an older African American man who could have been Morgan Freeman's twin brother, and me, the middle aged white man who had rock and rolled the night before. I spent most of two hours with these total strangers. We had wonderful conversation and the time went quickly. Even with all our obvious differences, we all seemed very much alike with many of the same concerns about life. I don't think I ever enjoyed waiting for an oil change so much.