What do car mechanics, impatient customers, and Oprah have in common?

This morning I sat in the waiting room at Tire Warehouse while a mechanic put four new tires on my car. The scene was what you might expect on a cold Monday morning in a tire warehouse: the guy who plunked down on the coffee-stained couch beside me smelled as if he had rolled around in a pile of cigarettes, the woman sitting across from me unwrapped and chomped on mini-Snickers after mini-Snickers, and the old townie who admitted he had "rushed in for an oil change just in case Wednesday's snow forecast came true" pontificated endlessly about tomorrow's presidential election to anyone who would (and wouldn't) listen.  According to him, "The mess we're all in right now started with Bush."

The only mess I was in at that moment was the $500 I was forking over for the new tires I so desperately needed.  And I couldn't even take advantage of the hour and a half to write on the laptop I was trying to prop on my knees because of the noise and the smells and the political rants drowning out whatever literary thoughts attempted to assemble in my brain and form words on my computer screen.

But then I saw him.  An elderly man sitting so quietly that it had taken me at least twenty minutes to notice him at all.  He didn't seem in a rush or irritated.  He was neither engaging nor avoiding the people around us. In fact, he looked quite content to be reading ... O Magazine.  I did a triple take to make sure that the incongruity was even real, that this man in work boots and work vest who reminded me of my own grandfathers, was actually reading - and completely absorbed by - what Oprah had to say.  But there he was, gently flipping the pages one at a time, glancing occasionally at the television's weather report, and then finding his way back to whatever Oprah article had grabbed his attention.  In fact, I actually found myself wondering what article it was, too.  Diet tips?  An interview with a holistic healer?  A "What Women Want" column.  A Favorite Things article.  

Whatever it was, he was as mindful of what he was reading as I suddenly was of him.  And it was a necessary reminder to me to live as fully in each moment as possible.  To assume that ordinary people will often surprise us.  And to know the pleasure of the smile we get to experience when that happens in our presence.  It reminded me to expect the unexpected.