A Dollar

He stood there.
He was calm and seemed to be a gentle soul.
Probably in his early twenties.
I had stopped off at the Dunkin Donuts shop for a guilty pleasure on the way home.
At the counter the young man was in line before me.
Ever just like to witness.
To observe.
To consider.
To enjoy the moment of simple discovery.
He ordered something to eat…I guess it was dinner time for him.
He was wearing a uniform from a grocery store.
Couldn’t tell what his job was there but it was an official grocery store uniform.
The order came to $5.45.
He had a zipped up wallet type bag he was carrying.
He carefully unzipped it and very carefully took out one dollar at a time.
Slowly. Observing it from wallet to handing it over.
He deliberately counted 5 dollars.
He smiled.
The donut lady said 45 cents more.
He said he did not have 45 cents.
They stood looking at each other.
I handed another dollar to the donut lady and said it is on me.
But he found another dollar…the last dollar he had…and said thank you but he always was taught to pay his bills.
We parted ways.
The grocery store has a great employee.
The scene was unimportant to the movement of the world, yet it touched me deeply.
Decent. Honorable. Noble.
That young man possessed all of those qualities and more.
Can you just witness the simple exchanges all throughout your day and see the decent, honorable, noble ones at work.
Can you be such a person.
The ageless experiment.