Thursday, September 30, 2010

John from the bar

Well I just had an hour conversation with John at the bar called classic jacks. John was a late 40's heavy set man who was pretty neat. He introduced himself as owning a cleaning company, security company and a doctor. Well at least he aspired to be a doctor. He also told me that he was cut by the Chicago Bulls and loves the game of basketball. His Hobbies were Working out and Church (his church has a billion members - he later told me his church was Catholicism).

As the diet Pepsi flowed through his cup we discused the nuances of religion and the differences of Catholicism and Christianity. John had quite a lot of difficulty getting his point across with me but in that his message came across clear. Life is about being the best person you can be. He was a regular at classic jacks. Every waitress that walked by knew his name and the bar tender never let his Pepsi go dry. He was the regular that every one liked. He repeated a few jokes to me and quit sentences in the middle but John had my attention. The one theme that he kept bringing up was to do good and treat one another fairly. He was not an average man, his heart was twice as big any one else's.
He welcomed me to Calgary about 3 times and asked me how the bombers were doing. We laughed about many things.

John mostly walked or took the transit he said but he did drive from time to time. When he did drive he went to this neat ice cream shop "just over there" that has a piano in it. I told him I would like to go sometime.

Finally 8 o'clock came and he had to go. So I bought him his diet Pepsi and told him I hoped to see him again.

John helped me remember that it is not the little things that matter but it is how you conduct yourself that gets you from day to day.

The bar tender said that John frequents a few local bars and when he comes in he puts $10 in the tip jar and has a few pepsi's and leaves, the bar tender also told me he admired John's style and bravery.

I am not sure if John actually had a job and had too many real friends but I am sure that he enjoyed his outings and his goal to make people happy was successful tonight.
AJ
Sent from my rotary phone

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