Seasons and Meaning

The other day I had a conversation with a gentleman, and the impact of that conversation seems to grow on me as each day passes.  At first blush it seemed totally benign, but as I thought more and more about the things he said, I began to see more and more significance and application in my own life.  I will never claim to know the "meaning of life", but this gentleman may have given me a clue.

I had taken the day off from work to take my truck in for repairs.  My plan was to sit at the dealership and wait, so I had brought my laptop and reading materials along.  I have been doing a lot of reading on things like personal leadership and God's intention for our lives for reasons I'll go into in another post.  Suffice it to say that I have been doing a lot of soul searching for the past year plus trying to figure out how I want to live the rest of my life - a changing of the seasons if you will.

It didn't take as long as I expected for my truck to be ready, so I was faced with  half the day left and nothing really to do.  I decided to go to the gym and work out.  I was excited because normally I am rushed to try to get my workout in as quickly as possible and on this day I could take my time.

In the locker room, I found myself getting dressed in the same aisle as a gentleman that I would guess was in his low to mid 80s.  He started a conversation with me, and I could just tell he wanted to talk, so I decided to take my time and chat with him.  We talked about what we were planning to do in our workouts (he was going to swim, I was going to lift), and he asked if I had to go back to work later.  I told him no, that I had taken the day off and he asked "You can do that?".  I smiled and told him about my truck and he told me about some of his experiences with car repairs. 

What he said next kind of stunned me - I asked him what he liked to do for fun, and he paused and then said "Well, I come here to the gym occasionally, but since my wife passed, I don't go out as much.  She just passed in June."  I could actually feel my heart breaking for this man.  I told him I was sorry for his loss, but that kind of ended the conversation.  I told him I needed to get going and he said he did too, and I told him to "have a good workout".

After my workout as I was drying off from the shower, he showed up again, drying himself off too.  We started a new conversation about how good it felt to work out, and he told me another story about car troubles from when he and his wife had driven to Florida.  We both lamented how it was too bad that car engines are so complicated today that it's almost impossible to repair anything yourself any more.  (Back in the old days you could do that you know.)  We shaved side by side at the sinks in the locker room and got dressed together, talking the whole time.  As we both packed up and took one last look in the mirror, I said to him, "Well, I'm taking off, you have a good rest of the day."  He looked at me and smiled and said, "Thank you, you too."  As I turned he said "Joel?", and I turned back to look at him and he said "Don't forget to have fun."