A Strange Encounter at a Coffee Shop. I visited my favorite coffee shop in Medford Oregon today and a strange thing happened. A man approached me and asked if I had a smart phone with Internet access. I said yes. He asked me to Google 'Ozymandias.' As I began reading Wikipedia's definition, he urged me to scroll to the poem. Then he grabbed my phone and began reading. I was stunned at first, but willingly complied. I sat down on a couch and sipped my mocha as I quietly observed the man with my phone.
After a few minutes, he handed me the phone and said thank-you. Then he sat down in a chair next to me and wanted to chat. My first instinct was to make a beeline dash for the door, but my gut told me to stay. He asked me to follow the Ozymandias poem on my phone as he began to recite it aloud from memory.
He stumbled a few times, but continued as if his life depended on it. During several pauses of silence, my maternal instinct kicked in and I wanted to help the stranger find the missing words, but I resisted the temptation. I thought if I had helped, the outcome of this odd event might somehow turn out differently. While I didn't fully understand my role, I was intrigued enough to allow him to continue.
When he reached the last word, he grinned from ear to ear and asked, 'How did I do?' I said, 'You did great!' He smiled real big and then offered a brief explanation. He said, 'I'm losing my memory and I've been trying to memorize poems so I can get better at remembering.' Suddenly, I knew instantly why I was randomly chosen to engage in this conversation.
It was just two weeks earlier, that I sat on this very couch, in this very coffee shop, and enjoyed a mocha with my Dad. And just two weeks before that, I sat with him at his Doctor's office while he was being evaluated for Alzheimers. When my Dad had finished answering the Doctor's questions, he turned to me, grinning from ear to ear and asked, 'How did I do?' I said, 'You did great Dad!'
The Universe has a funny way of reminding us of what's important. Slowing down, smelling the coffee and reading a poem are simple ways of enjoying the meaning of life. Thank-you Mr. Stranger... for today, you were the blessed traveler I met from an antique land ;)
The Poem - Ozymandias - by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
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