Shoe shine sir?

I was staying at the Philadelphia Marriott downtown, for a trade show that was being held in the City of Brotherly Love.  I got my shoes shined the day before in the hotel lobby. The shoe shine man wasn’t very talkative, which was disappointing. I have had great conversations with shoe shine men. The next day, I was walking by and there was another, older man shining shoes. He called out to me, and asked if I needed a shine. I replied, “No, just got one from your partner yesterday!” The man had something about him, a twinkle in is wise eyes. Then, I said, “How much for a touch-up?” He replied, “four dollars.”

I sat down in the shoe shine chair, and we began to talk. The man was 84 years old. He was a former member of the USA gymnastic team. Served as an intelligence officer for the U.S. Army. He was fluent in French. He still had the muscular arms of a gymnasts too.

He asked me, “Do you have bad days?”

I said, “Yes I do, doesn’t everyone?”

He snapped, “No. No you don’t. You have bad moments! There are no bad days.” I thought it was an interesting and positive way of thinking about our lives. Then he went on to explain to me that people learn the wrong words to describe the world, and as a result see the world the wrong way.

He said the problem is we are all educated wrong, and “I bet you don’t even know the right way to tie your shoes!” I wasn’t about to disagree with him, figuring he knew something I didn’t. Then he showed me how to tie my dress shoes so they didn’t work lose during the day, but could also be untied with a pull of the lace. Amazing. How did I get to this age without anyone showing me the right way to tie my shoes?!

He told me he works as a shoe shine man, because a man needs to work. He shines shoes to honor his father who put five children through college, by shining shoes. He was proud to be back doing the first job he had, helping his daddy shine shoes.

I rarely meet anyone with such a positive and exuberant outlook on life.  He was a great man, a great teacher, dispensing to the world much needed wisdom, one shoe shine at time. I saw in that man the face of God, with the wisdom of Buddha, and the teacher of Jesus.

My father taught me years ago to treat everyone with respect. You never know who they really are. 

Maybe one of them, or many if them, are God?