The Guy at Wawa

There are still good hearted, positive people in this world. I was reminded of that this morning in the most unlikely place, a Wawa convenience store. 

After the last couple of weeks, there's been times when I've honestly wanted to give up on people altogether. Become a hermit.. keep to myself.. avoid dealing with anybody if I could help it.

So this morning I stopped in at Wawa to get a black coffee and a few Lottery tickets. Today I gave myself plenty of lead time before work, so I figured I'd buy a few tickets, sit down with my coffee, scratch them at my leisure and just enjoy a quiet beautiful morning for a little while, before starting the grind once again.

Before I went inside, I noticed an older gentleman standing outside scratching a lottery ticket. He looked like a retired guy who had absolutely nowhere he needed to be. Hawaiian shirt, shorts, comfortable sandals. It's actually my prefferred leisure style to the tee, draped on someone 20 years older than I am.

He scratched his ticket, smiled, walked inside and came back out with another one.

He scratched that one too. Smiled again, walked back inside, came back out with another ticket. 

Same thing. Scratch.. Smile.. Go inside.

Eventually I went inside, bought a few tickets of my own and had a dollar credit left in the machine. As I was walking away, I heard a voice behind me.

"Don't forget, you have a dollar credit left."

I turned around and there he was.

I thanked him and told him that he had just saved me from doing something I've done before. I've walked away from a lottery machine and left money sitting there.

That led him to tell me a story.

He said that once, in New York, he was buying tickets when one of the biggest Powerball jackpots ever was up for grabs. He bought several tickets, got distracted and walked away without taking one of them.

He left it sitting in the machine. He didn't even take it home.

I groaned and said..

"Boy.. I hope somebody else didn't get that jackpot."

He told me he checked the news afterward and nobody had won the big jackpot.

I told him, "Well, maybe karma will come back around. Maybe somebody else made a little money when they really needed it"

He looked at me and said something that stuck with me.

"You know what? I think that's just God's way of telling me I didn't need that money at that time."

I stood there thinking about that for a second. Most people would probably spend the rest of their lives telling that story as the time they almost became a millionaire. They'd be angry at themselves. They'd curse their luck. They'd wonder what could have been.

This guy just shrugged it off.

Apparently he wasn't supposed to have that money. And that was that. Now that's a special kind of philosophy.

A few minutes later as I started pouring myself a coffee, I looked out the window. There was the same guy outside with the hood of his car open.

I thought, "Oh no. His car is broken down."

I started thinking about whether I had a jump box in my trunk that I could use to help him get going, then I looked a little closer. He wasn't trying to get his own car started. He was hooking up jumper cables to somebody else's car.

There he was, standing outside talking to a complete stranger, helping them get their car started. And from what I could see through the window, he looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

Just talking..

Just helping..

Just being friendly..

Nothing important was happening.. Nobody was giving him an award..

He wasn't changing the world..

He was just having a good morning.

And for some reason, that really hit me.

I thought, "That's the kind of retiree I want to be."

Not necessarily wealthy, or accomplishing.. anything important every day. Just being happy to be alive.

You know.. get up in the morning.. go somewhere..talk to people. Take a walk.. stop for a coffee.. scratch a couple of lottery tickets.. help somebody if they need it. 

Finding something enjoyable about an ordinary day and making the most of whatever moment I'm in. And most importantly, don't become bitter.

Don't let life beat me down to the point where I stop enjoying the little things.

Don't let the stupidity of other people ruin my entire day. Don't become the guy who sits around complaining about everything that's wrong with the world.

That man at Wawa seemed so comfortable with life. There was a peacefulness about him. Almost a Zen quality and it radiated.

He lost a lottery ticket that could have been worth millions and his response was basically, "I guess I didn't need it."

Then a few minutes later he's helping somebody else get their car started.

That's the kind of attitude I want.

And maybe I shouldn't wait until I'm retired to start working on it.

Maybe retirement shouldn't be some huge personality transformation that happens when I finally stop working.

Maybe I should start practicing now.

If I want to be that relaxed, friendly, helpful and contented old guy someday, I probably need to start becoming that guy today.

So that's my little lesson I gleaned from Wawa and the very Zen Gentleman this morning.

I left hoping maybe some of this guy's lottery luck would rub off on me.

But after watching him for a while, I'm thinking maybe something much more valuable already did.

Maybe a little bit of his attitude rubbed off instead. This was just 10 minutes and I can see he at least positively affected two people today. What is the rest of this guy's day going to be like? His week? Month? Year?!? 

Well.. who knows?

Maybe I'll scratch these tickets later and find out the luck came along too. 🤞