For one reason or another, my family is scattered for Christmas Day this year. Anyone left in town usually ends up going for dinner at Denny's, which is the only thing open for miles. Even the 24-hour MegaMart and the local McDonald's are closed. This is a college town, and normally it's easy to find people out and something open at any hour. On Christmas Eve, I drove around for awhile about 9:30pm and saw maybe six cars on the road and long lines of dark storefronts and parking lots. It's surreal.
So today, my sister and I went to Denny's, which does an excellent business on Christmas. It's also an interesting place to people-watch: several couples, one with a baby, a few grown children out with parents, some students stuck in town over the winter break. In the corner, a fellow was out with his friend, or maybe his brother. The friend appeared to be autistic, or maybe just a little slow. The conversation was a little one-sided, and yet clearly, the friend was important to the talker, who was determined to engage him. "I think we should travel," he said, and "You don't have to go to college to be important. I think I'll teach you calculus."
My sister is mildly autistic (we spend a lot of time in companionable silence, including tonight), so I appreciated their conversation and tried not to stare.
And when we were nearing the end of our own dinner, our waitress told my sister and I that those two fellows in the corner had paid for our dinner. They had finished before we had, and picked up not only our check, but also the check for another nearby party with a young man and his elderly parents.
I'm very touched by this. They didn't know any of us, we didn't speak to each other, and we have no way even to say Thank You. We can only remember and maybe pay it forward sometime.
It can be difficult to accept graciously. It's too easy to say, oh no, you're too good, I couldn't possibly accept, please let me return the favor. I am not worthy of such attention. Sometimes the best thing to do, and the hardest, is to simply accept somebody's offering a help or a kindness, without insisting that it's not necessary or it must be returned.
So, tonight, for the gentlemen who took me to dinner: Thank you. The world feels a little warmer tonight.
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