Andy and I ran to the mall this evening to run some errands. After parking the car, we ran into our friend, Avi*. After a bit of back and forth, Avi commented that the good thing about malls is that there’s no news there. I knew what he meant. I certainly needed a respite from current events and was glad that my greatest concern for the next hour was whether I’d find everything on my shopping list. Wandering the aisles of Home Center and searching for enough matching drinking glasses, a lovely young Arab woman in a traditional head scarf helped us find the set we were looking for and even fetched a large shopping cart for us so we wouldn’t have to sweat getting to the check-out aisle with our purchase in one piece. We chit-chatted over nothing more intellectually stimulating than the funky shape of some of the glasses, wished each other a good night and went our separate ways. A few minutes later, as the cashier scanned our purchases, I “flirted” with a little Arab boy whose proud young father scooped him up and put him on his shoulders as if he were king of the world.
Life goes on.
*name changed to protect confidentiality
