Thursday, April 28, 2011

The McDonalds Lesson

So I've been back in the States for a couple of days now immersing myself in all the Americana I can.

Tonight I decided to go for a stroll and have dinner at the McDonald's near the Rosslyn Metro station.

The crowd waiting at the counters was the usual mixture of blue collar and office workers.

In comes a man wearing what can only be described as rags. He was talking loudly, to himself, ranting endlessly on many subjects, fortunately no obscenities. Everyone gave him a wide berth as expected. The counter people gave him dirty looks. Everyone else tried to avoid looking at him.

When there was no one waiting in line he walked up, gained a minute of normalcy, turned around and asked if anyone was waiting. With no reply he placed his order of Dollar Menu items.

Just then a young girl wearing a hijab (head scarf that Muslim women wear) walked up to the counter, gave the counter woman some money and told her something. She in turn said something to the homeless man and he turned around and said "Thank you ma'am, thank you, thank you, God bless you!"

Life's little lessons in the strangest of places.

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