I am standing in line at my local grocery store. Nothing very exciting while waiting to pay for groceries, you’ll most likely agree. Chocolate bars are the same, chewing gums with colours covering the whole rainbow spectrum are displayed at my kids’ eye level so they can sharpen their whining skills every time they’re shopping with mom. This time I’m by myself, a treat in itself. The magazines are painted the usual stuff: Faces may be different but on any given week someone famous is getting divorced, having a baby or is being subjected to the horror of wearing same haute couture outfit at some gala event not much different from the one last week to begin with. Still, who wore the outfit better?
The cashier’s name is Lisa. I like her. She’s always asking the mandatory “How are you?” but I always ask back not just to be polite. And every time we strike a real conversation. I’ve told her about my boys, she’s told me about her daughter more than once, we talk about having to hang in there when you feel like running as far your legs can carry you. Today she can probably say she’d been better. And that’s kind of what she says to the guy in front of me when he asks about her day. He smiles and says “Well, have a great time!”. Lisa smiles and retorts “Yeah, I’m having a party the remaining of the day, you know?”. With a seemingly undefeated bright sparkle in his eyes, the guy says “It’s all up here, remember that, whatever you choose to believe,” says the guy while gently tapping his temples with his index finger.
So I almost feel like I’m stepping into something deep when I get to pay for my groceries. I look at her and smile. “It’s all in the head, you know that, right?” she says convinced that she’ll make my day or days roll smoother from now on. “I know, but it sounds way easier than it actually is.” Not playing hard to get, just knowing that for a fact. “Well, you heard the guy, even that is up here,” she insists. She means well, we’re friends. My day rolls the same but now I know I can turn it around. I get my groceries and the rest of stuff I did not pay for but was given anyway by my well-meaning friend. Everything is relative, isn’t it?