Last week, standing to buy something in a store, the clerk who’d been taking care of getting my order was called away. Standing behind a post, and thinking I couldn’t hear, he said to another clerk, “I have to go for a minute. Would you please take care of the older gentleman?”
The new clerk came to the cash register. I asked: “Did he say ‘Would you help the older gentleman, meaning me’?” The new clerk, with a semi-sheepish look said, “I’ll have to tell him about that.”
Today is my birthday, and I couldn’t help but think about being an “older gentleman”. But, that’s what I am. It’s helpful, as Robert Burns said, “to see ourselves as others see us”. We may not like it, but that’s the way it is. We older gentlemen know about such things.
