I’ve been working at Tropical Smoothie for two months now and the joy I find in the experience has not faded one bit. Granted I spent 3 weeks of those 8 in Scotland with my wife, and I only work in the morning before the consistently crazy lunch rush, but going in at 6:00 am to prep strawberries, mangos and 2oz bags of chicken cubes for the day, still feels right. In fact, I can’t wait to get up in the morning to see Troy, the owner, my son, Alexander, the manager, and to meet the early morning patrons.
Since starting, I have more energy and I’ve increased my ability to work on other projects throughout the rest of the day. I credit the no-nonsense discipline of fast food service and the no-pretension responsibility of entry-level work for rekindling the ambitious energy of youth. The aches and pains I have now, that I didn’t have at 18, are tempered by wisdom from 67 years that taught me how to pace. Pace, for those of you taking notes, is what it’s all about.
My pacing skill grabs a nap after lunch when my schedule permits. And if it doesn’t, I pace my evening so that my time to read and relax happens an hour earlier, and while in bed.
Heaven.
Since I began as a smoothie merchant, I’ve been to Scotland, as I mentioned, and America has chosen a new president. The former was one of the best experiences of my life, the latter may be the worst.
That’s where 67 years kick in again.
I was 11 years old in 1968 when the Vietnam War split America in two, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Nixon was elected president and many people thought he would be the end of democracy. A period of violent unrest followed. Kent State happened a few years later.
Our own National Guard killing students? How far off the rails can America go?
Yet, here I am in 2024, having had a couple of great careers and raised a couple of great kids. Not to mention the happy home I have today with my wife who raised her own great kids. A big Brady Bunch celebration.
That admission is not a call for complacency in these difficult times, it is a call to calibrate attitudes and responsibilities and to remind us that there’s work to be done, that it can be done, and that a good life can be the reward.
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Tropical Smoothie shows me the diverse patchwork of the human quilt every day, usually in seemingly mundane ways. From the puzzle of differences and what may seem to be nonsense, there is compatibility and order.
Today a woman ordered our bacon, cheese and egg wrap, only she wanted it without cheese and egg, and she wanted the bacon on the side.
That’s an empty tortilla and a side of bacon.
”Do you want the egg and cheese…on the side, too?”
“No, I don’t like either.”
“So…one egg and cheese wrap…with no egg or cheese…with bacon on the side…ma’am, that’s still going to be $6.87…do you want the tortilla…wrapped…or just flat?”
“Roll it up. It’s a wrap, isn’t it?!”
She drove up to the window and a nicer person there has never been. Her order didn’t suggest she would be anything other than nice, but her presence was an affirmation of how different we all can be in the pursuit of many of the same things. We have all culled certain habits from patterns, we have likes and dislikes, we’ve learned to compromise and we’ve learned where we won’t. Life is a negotiation and our experiences are our currency to haggle with and to trade.
She wrapped the bacon around the plain rolled up tortilla and drove away enjoying what to me seemed bland, but to her was exactly what she wanted. I can’t wait to see her again.
Politics are still fresh on my mind and they aren’t as simple as an awareness of individuality and differences in fast food. The ramifications of policy effect primary needs like health and safety, liberty and opportunity, and the stakes are much higher. But at the center of all of our interactions, there is a shared reflection of human beings negotiating what they know from their experiences.
That gives me the peace of mind and the fortitude to have hope and to keep moving forward with the work that must be done. No matter what side you’re on. Or what you want on the side.
Anyone want a banana and strawberry smoothie without bananas or strawberries?
Probably.
