The crisp stagnant air hits my body as the glass doors effortlessly glide open to reveal one of the very many bare necessities of life. The Sunday morning’s warmth is quickly stolen by man made light reflecting off of perfectly shined, laminated flooring. A line of worn men and overworked mothers stand in an aggravating compliance as an apathetic clerk makes time stand still.
The mundane and ordinary occurrence of shopping at the grocery store clashes with the radiant stream of colors attempting to outshine their competition. Thousands of choices, but which one is the best? Some things are small and easy, others large and heavy. Some things boast about preserving life ,while others smile at the heart stopping taste of happiness.
The scary part is that these choices are completely in our own hands. Choices about our futures, our families, and our desires. Different hands grabbing different items, each converging here together on seemingly different paths of life. Forced to make these choices in this place, we are all equal.
Every CEO, underpaid nurse, and starving college student is forced to put aside personal agendas for a moment in time. To remember that we are human. To remember that no matter what happens outside of these doors, there is some thread of familiarity that binds us together, even as the world seems to be slowly ripping apart.
This grocery store suddenly seems like so much more than a crossed off line on a Sunday morning’s to do list.