Lunch Menu

Went to the Co-op to have lunch with some friends. While foraging, I ran into someone I hadn’t seen for a year or more. “How are you?,” I asked. “Eh. [Someone]’s father died, so I’m getting lunch for him and going over there.” I had heard the week before that a key person had quit his company, and that his fiancé had left him because he drinks too much. I didn’t pursue those topics, but they were in my mind. I am awkward in situations like this, never sure exactly what to say. “Ciao!,” doesn’t quite cut it. I told him about my dad, who has had six stents put in his heart, which is like science fiction, but also means that his heart is fragile, and of course he won’t live forever. Friendship score: C.
Eventually I sat down and the first person arrived. “How are you?,” I asked. “Well. Not that great. I had been on anti-depressants, and tried to get off them for a while, but then I had a lot of problems, so I’m on them again, but it takes time for them to take effect. At work everything seems so complex. I can’t really focus, and even when I can I don’t really seem to get it.” I noticed my fear – here is an engineer who can’t understand his tasks; that would be scary. I was a better friend with him, offering some perhaps meager moral support for life’s twists and turns. Score: B.
Needless to say, as the other four people arrived I did not ask how they were.
But then during lunch Sarah walked by and gave me a big smile and a wave, and I felt brightened. Then later Alison walked by and gave me a big big smile and a friendly wink as she waved, and it’s pretty hard to be bummed out about that. Then Doug and I had a good talk about his art show and how people relate to art, and who buys art, and how you have to fail fast enough that you can afford to succeed. Talking with Doug is always good. Then the clerk at the post office knew my box number without me telling her, so I felt recognized in the world.
I guess for lunch I had “soup of the day,” in a social sense.