Montana Man
February 2, 2018
There are times…many times when we simply miss opportunities. We are a culture of, keep to ourselves people, stick to our own ilk, clique comfort zone. But, when we understand how brief and precious our existence actually is, we will know how to seize those opportunities that most miss. Tonight, for instance, my husband and I celebrated our 36th anniversary of blissful matrimony; and I sincerely mean that. I have never in my 50 some-odd years breathing upon this earth known anyone who has had what my amazing husband and I have…we have IT…but it is not what I want to share with you…it is beyond that. So tonight, we went to a very fancy, extremely overpriced restaurant, but the quintessential place to be on one’s 36 anniversary. As we were seated, and as irony would have it, this was the VERY first time that we have been seated in a restaurant and not changed tables–we are just weird that way. So, upon being seated at a lovely window table, with spectacular 7th-floor views of Lake Coeur d’Alene, I quickly scanned those sitting around us, searching for a soul or two that might engage our extroverted personalities. Of course, my senses went directly to the table behind the table behind us. They were loud and happy and appeared to be, our kind of people. Albeit, we would have to shout past the meek couple who sat directly behind us, who were so nondescript I would be redundant to explain that I can’t even remember them to describe them. However, directly across from us, well slightly to my left, was a man…he was sitting in a large booth. At first glance, he appeared to be sitting alone, but to his left was a glass of white wine and to his right a glass of red. A large bottle of Avion or some other designer water sat to his right. My first bit of uncontrolled small talk to this stranger was to inquire if he was alone or if his dinner date was just momentarily absent. I mean, really white wine and red wine—blasphemy!
The stranger told us that indeed he was alone and was just traveling through our city on his way to Montana. I noticed an accent and asked where he was from, and without missing a beat he said, Montana. Knowing that most people from Montana do not have a European accent, I pressed on…”no, really where are you actually from?” “France” he said. So after a few minutes of minutia small talk, I said, “so what do you do in Montana?” Now, this is where we took a large turn from attorney-client to client-attorney…he said, he does a lot of things but without hesitation and before I could even spit out another word he began asking us about our lives…what we did, how many kids we had, about our life… I saw what you did there Montana Man. That is our line of questioning. But we did find out a little about you…you love to write; you don’t think your audience to be idiots and actually think quite kindly of them. You adore the San Juan Islands and even gave us a brief history lesson. We didn’t get into the Pig war or the War of San Juan but you did talk about Grant and the San Juan’s with a sense of passion.
My point for writing this is to encourage everyone to step out of their comfort zone and to embrace the man from Montana who is sitting right next to you! Yes, it may be brief and you may NEVER meet again. But, meeting, even for a moment can make lasting memories and can even change the course of history. You just don’t know.
Daniella Cross is the caretaker of 4Earth and Featured writer.
ALL images used in this site rely on the U.S. Copyright law doctrine of “Fair Use” with No Copyright Infringement intended.