Last week while driving to work I spotted a woman who was talking to a row of grocery baskets. She looked as crazy as they come. But then I started to wonder what was going through her mind. I wished there was a way to be a fly on one of those baskets.
What happened in her life to bring her to this moment in time where she was living in her own world? And what is that world of hers like? Is she replaying an argument with childhood friends? Maybe it was an argument that was so traumatic that it changed the course of her school years or her outlook on friendship. Could this row of shopping carts represent her former students in a previous career as a teacher? Was she “teaching” these carts Grammar, Mathematics, Science? And how desperately sad for me as a mom to think that maybe these carts are the representation of her children that she lost somehow. Maybe she is imparting on her children the life lessons and love that she only wishes she could physically share with them.
And then I began to cry because this woman could be you or me. Maybe she was going about her daily life, raising her children, loving her husband, working a career, taking care of family, enjoying vacations, and counting her blessings when one tragic moment or one poor decision caused a series of events to land her alone on the street talking to shopping carts.
And while most people driving by let out a small chuckle or a boisterous laugh at her expense I couldn’t help but see the woman behind the crazy.
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