Details

The small details found within our lives are often the most frustrating or, contrarily, the most pleasing.

I recall, on the frustrating side, struggling to open the plastic bags I pulled from the rolls at the produce section of grocery stores every time I tore a bag free and tried to stuff apples or some other handful of produce inside.  I mean, time after time, I stood there wrestling with the bags as if they were live fish—swapping ends, grasping, pinching, trying to open the damned things.

For years, I struggled with plastic bags.

About three years ago, a smartly dressed young woman took notice of me as I attempted to open a plastic bag.  I suspect I was putting on a pretty spectacular show.  She approached.  “There is a trick to those,” she proffered.  She reached out a hand “I can show you.”

“Sure,” I said.  I watched as the woman lightly moistened the thumb and index finger of her right hand with her tongue.  She then pinched the end of the bag with her finger and thumb and made the motion of snapping her fingers.

The bag immediately rolled open.

That simple.  My life changed forever.

Yesterday, on the pleasing side, I took notice of something that has evaded me for the entire summer.  Posted is a photograph of my socks and shoes as I stood on my back deck.  The colors match perfectly!

Hey, I’ll take victories where I find them…

--Mitchell Hegman