Friday, June 12, 2009

Strange and tender

As I was driving to work this morning, I saw the strangest sight. At least for me it seemed strange.

A young man (early 30's) crossed the road in front of me. I was on a straight stretch of a service road where there are no homes. The highway is on the other side of the service road and a nursing home on down the way a bit. This young man was heading to the highway side of the road. He was dressed in an old baseball hat, t-shirt, obviously dirty jeans and work boots. His hair was the long, greasy type pulled back into a pony tail. He was the type of character that my stereotyped mind immediately thought "what is this dude up to..."

But wait! He had something clutched in one of his hands. It was a spash of color against his dreary appearance. He was clutching a bouquet of wildflowers! Freshly picked wildflowers from the roadside. I found myself looking around the area. I couldn't see a destination - no parked car with a loved one patiently waiting inside, no house... just this guy with some precious wildflowers. All of a sudden rather than seeing the stereotyped dude, I was seeing visions of my own children bringing me a boquet of freshly picked flowers from the yard.

Where could he have been going with those flowers?

8 comments:

LadyStyx said...

Maybe he was picking wildflowers for a loved one in that home? Since he was still going the opposite way, he probably only had half the bouquet he was wanting and was getting ready to turn around to head back after he found just the right flower to be a center point of the bunch.

Intense Guy said...

I'd go with Styxie's scenario... Just a thoughtful guy - maybe didnt have enough to buy cut flowers - maybe just didn't have time on his way over to the nursing home after work...

I'm going to think that anyway. :)

Toriz said...

This story reminds me of something I was told by my Drama teacher at school...

"A simple addition or change to a scene can completely change its meaning."

I hope whoever the flowers were for appreciated them.

AliceKay said...

I guess we'll never know where he was going, but someone was lucky enough to get some nice wildflowers from someone who cared enough to stop and pick them.

Anonymous said...

You can't judge a book by it's cover.

Karla said...

I'm with Styxie..Sounds logical. Or maybe he was just picking the flowers to take to his homeless shelter, to freshen it up a bit because even though he looked rough around the edges, maybe he has lost his job and they are having to live in the woods..but that's too sad to think about. So I'll stick with Styxies scenario.

MarmiteToasty said...

Maybe he was picking them for himself.... and remembering a time as a child he picked them for his mother....

x

Queenie Jeannie said...

Someone picking flowers is doing something nice for SOMEONE!! I think that's really sweet.