Who is this guy you might ask? This is a selfie of the waiter at the Restaurant in NC where we had dinner Thanksgiving week while visiting Hannah this year. I had asked him to take a picture of our family and I found his image in my camera.
Apparently it is what servers do now. They get asked so often when customers come in to celebrate significant events “Do you mind taking a picture of us?” that they have started putting themselves into the moment by snapping a quick selfie.
They put themselves into the experience. They were on the outside taking the shot but now they are one of the shots… they are in. They are now part of this memorable experience.
At first I was a little irritated but now I find myself thinking about our waiter and how hard he worked serving us that night and how often he came back refilling water and wine and replacing appetizer plates with entrees and extra napkins and explaining sauces. I was glad he was part of our experience and every time I think of him I send him positive energy. He crossed a threshold with me and now is somehow connected to my life.
What courage did it take for him to do that? To put himself into a strange experience and leave his image forever with people he does not know?
What courage does it take for us to put ourselves into a tentative experience and leave our mark forever? What prevents us from crossing those kinds of thresholds?
Some day, men and women will rise, they will reach the mountain peak, they will meet big and strong and free, ready to receive, to partake, and to bask in the golden rays of love. What fancy, what imagination, what poetic genius can foresee the potentialities of such a force in the life of men and women. Emma Goldman
Lydia Patrick
