Monday, June 13, 2011

The Waving Veteran at the Retirement Home

A retirement home for the elderly sits at the end of our street, and we drive by it everyday.  When the weather is warm, a few of the residents sit outside by the road in their wheelchairs.  
One resident who wears an old folded military hat with various pins on it, sits in his chair, hand constantly in the air, waving at all the passing cars.  Some folks see him and wave back, others don't.  
When Eric & I see him, we try to always wave back and smile as we pass.  
We were talking about him the other night as we took an evening stroll around our neighborhood.  We were discussing how it makes our day every time he smiles and waves at us, even though we're strangers and only one of many cars he waves to throughout the day.  But still, we're impressed and appreciative that this man takes the time to see us and wave as we drive by.  It's nice to connect with another human being, even though it's a brief encounter, and even though we've never met.  And we don't even have to initiate the interaction; we simply need to respond.  So we wave and grin, hoping that we're reflecting some of that positive energy back to him.

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