Paradigm Shift, A different View

A diner changes in the way we view it when the photo is taken from a car window at 40 MPH

When I call for takeout, Gyro's and Fries, at the Olympic Cafe, the food is always ready when I walk in the door, last night, all traffic lights were GREEN, and I was told I had to wait for the fries.

By the door,there is a very small bench, two SMALL people limit and I am NOT small. I glanced at the bench and hesitated to sit that close to a young man of about 23 or so. He was about my height, young, not handsome, but cute, round glasses perched on his face and he had the look of a lost, slightly grungy puppy.

My legs made the decision to sit and wait and I am so glad that I did. As we sat elbow to elbow, I glanced at him and he had removed his glasses and was fiddling with the screw. He caught me looking and said,

He: Wearing glasses is not fun.

Me: I agree, not fun at all. They slide down my nose when I am hot.

He: And they fog up when I get out of the car. My two young sons got my glasses and broke the arm, the screw will not stay tight.

Me: I do not like wearing glasses, but if I take them off you would look like you are under water.

He: I can see up close, but not at the distance. (His wife walked up,and I found he was waiting on her to get off work, she is a waitress there.)

Wife: I had to make him stop driving until we could get his glasses, he is blind without them. (wife hands him a muffin and leaves)

He: I just recently got these glasses and I work construction and when they got dusty, I used my shirt to clean them and now they are all scratched up,but that doesn't really matter right now, there is no work for me in construction. I am a short order cook too, but the restaurants aren't hiring right now. I can't find work in either job or any job.There is no work here.

Me: my son lives in TN in a trailer on 5 acres, 30 minutes to Wal-Mart and he has been out of work over a year.

He: that sounds great, but my old lady has to be 5 minutes from Wal-mart.

Me: Me to, Wal-Mart is my store. What do you do about sunglasses when you are working outside?

He: I pull down the visor when I can and squint outside, I wanted the glasses that change to dark in the sun, but they wanted 50 dollars more and I did not have the money.

Note:the glasses he had on were the 59 dollar kind, falling apart even though they were fairly new..

At that moment, they brought my order and I stood up and he said, It was nice talking to you,have a nice day.
I barely made it to my car before my eyes filled with tears and I drove home with them rolling down my face. I prayed as I drove that God would help this young man find a job and thanked Him for pointing out to me how blessed I am. My thoughts were all over the place, I had spent 18 dollars (more than 2 hours pay for her)for 2 sandwiches and fries without a thought about it. I thought we spend enough eating out in one week to pay for his sunglasses. My life perspective ran down so many trails, to many to post here.
When I walked in the door my husbands noticed my eyes were red, and as I explained the tears, they started to roll again as they have while I try to put my thoughts on paper. I have no idea why this young man touched my heart to it's depths, but he did and I had a MAJOR Paradyme Shift in how I viewed him and MY life.

Paradigm Shift-a change in our point of view when we have a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes our mindset that we apply to how we feel about others or situations.

I learned the above definition in a Team Leader training session many years ago, and the illustration story never left my mind.
A woman on a plane was very aggravated and upset with a young Father with two small children, he sat and stared out the window and the children ran wild and spilled things and cried and he never made a move to stop them. The woman spent the entire flight thinking bad thoughts obout him. As they were leaving the plane, she made a comment to him and his answer was, my wife was in the hospital with cancer, she died yesterday and her coffin is in the back of the plane, we are taking her home to bury her. The woman had a major Paradigm shift, how she viewed his actions changed completely.

NOTE: I believe God made the traffic signals green to give me the opportunity to sit next to this young man.