Light Riders

Today, I was having coffee with a friend of mine. We were just catching up on various things and were sitting outside of a Starbucks in Post Falls, Idaho. It was a pretty nice day and I was feeling good and (as always) young.

Then a man walked up to us. He looked maybe 45. He was about my height, tanned and bearded. His clothes were a bit worn, but nothing terrible. In one hand he held a cell phone, in the other he had a 24 oz. drink.

"Don't ever get old," he said to us. A strange statement, and an even stranger way to start a conversation. I said "Well, it's unavoidable, don't you think?"

He disagreed. He said that we shouldn't waste our money on frivolous things. That we should go to school, study and go to church. He went on and on.

His story was a convoluted, non-linear affair, but it was a heartbreaking one. This man, who's name was Tony, I believe. Had been a contractor for a number of years. He had, in fact built many of the building we were next to (we were in a little strip mall joint).

Then he got laid off, at the same time that he got laid off his wife left him for another man.

He related all of this via a series of disconnected ramblings. He was giving us advice (ostensibly) but I felt more like he needed someone to talk to.

He said at one point, "Look at all these buildings, I built these. How can it be that one year later I can't afford to pay my electrical bills? And one year ago I was building these buildings? One year ago I had a job, a family and wife, and now all I have is my dogs and Starbucks?"

The anguish was terrible. I so desperately wanted to be able to help this man, but I could not. His life is his life.

He was a smart man but he had no formal education (as far as I know). He had gotten training in drafting but he said the technology had changed so much that he had no chance of getting a job in that field.

He went on, his ramblings oscillated between terribly desperate and mildly hopeful.

And then he began talking about light. He said it was amazing how the light that was hitting us, at that moment, would reflect out into space and in a million years aliens might look through a telescope and see us having that conversation. He wondered about whether or not that meant we were immortal. He talked about how the light from a year ago would show him happy and employed, but the light from the present would show him broke and alone.

We decided that we were all just light riders. He said that would make a good song title.

He kept pacing, flipping his phone open, closing it, looking around, opening his phone again. He told us that he was waiting for his ex-wife and that she was late. He told me that someday I would understand the pain of seeing your ex-wife driving around with another man (I hope I don't).

Finally, after he decided that she was not going to show up, he left. As he left he said, "Things will get better, the economy will pick up, I'll get a job, my wife will come back to me." And he drove off.

The human spirit is amazing.