a cheeseburger and a gown, please

Most of the time, we use our words for a single moment. We don’t imagine them lingering in the air, waiting to pop out into someone else’s moment, a moment that has nothing to do with us at all. But I suspect our words often travel far away; alas, we rarely know where they go.

But tonight I was lucky to discover that my words had made their way to a McDonalds.  I wasn’t there but I’m glad my words made it without me, carried there by someone who treated them with respect and care. She had listened to a quick quip from me years ago and remembered what I said.  With all the words that bombard us each day, that alone is pretty remarkable.

But the true beauty in this story is the woman’s journey.  Like her, I too remember the thought that came from my mouth long ago: “I don’t need to change.  I will go to a McDonalds if I want.”  (Key fact: I was wearing a formal gown at the time).  Some people just hear the words when I say stuff like that (and more often than not, look at me a bit strangely) but this woman heard my meaning.  My message?  I don’t care if everyone looks at me funny, who the hell are they?  Maybe I am on my way to a black tie event and suddenly need a cheeseburger.  They don’t know and I will be damned if I’m going to let them stop me from wearing my gown if I want to.

The short of it?  Wear the gown to McDonalds if it makes you feel great.  As to those who consider wearing a gown to grab a Big Mac strange?  Well, they don’t have to wear one.  Screw them if they can’t take a joke.

Tonight this woman told me that my words struck her at the time and had remained with her over the years.   Perhaps she knew she might need them.  Because in the time since we last spoke, she got a divorce and her mother died.  Life hasn’t been easy. It’s been really, really impossibly hard actually.

So she put on a favorite silk gown (it was green) ― and went to McDonalds.  She was alone and she was brave and she was beautiful.  And, for a moment, it helped.

I don’t know what the lesson to this story is, or if there is any lesson at all.   Perhaps it is simply a story about how we can all touch each other; how we can make a difference even when we don’t mean to.  But if we can’t even imagine where are words might go, shouldn’t we try to make them ones that at least have the chance of a happy ending?

Maybe wearing a gown to McDonald’s isn’t your thing.  But you never know.

#gooddaygown #wearyourwhimsy