King Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, said that there is nothing new under the sun. Yet, every day I see things that are uniquely strange and wonderful.
Last week my son and daughter-in-law presented me with another grandson who, at the age of four days amazed his parents by rolling over from his stomach to his back. When they took this less-than-seven-pound baby to the doctor on his seventh day of life, the doctor greeted that news with a snort. “Impossible,” was the pronouncement. Just then little Charlie laying on the table on his tummy must have heard her; he rolled over.
My daily life to the untrained eye, appears busy but mundane. Today’s third chore on my list took me to Sherwin Williams where I purchased three five gallon containers of paint and a one gallon mis-tint bargain priced at $5. Ready to leave, I fished for my keys. They were M.I.A.. I emptied my purse, the two young lady workers checked the counter and then the newer helper, tired of standing in the rain with the paint outside my locked van, said, “I bet ya left the keys on the coffee server.” I was sure this reincarnated Sherlock Homes was right. I took another gulp of hot coffee and followed her in from the parking lot. No keys.
We were stultified for a minute, then went back outside to peer into the van. Two weeks ago I had locked my keys in the car while shopping at Surplus Warehouse and had to wait for AAA. Not today. The Sherwin-Williams assistant and myself assured ourselves that the keys were not in the car. We decided to get out of the rain and inside again, I pondered the situation.
“Can you call the customer that just left? I think she mistakenly pocketed my keys.” The young manager was obviously uncomfortable with this request but humored me. That customer had appeared to be a friend of one of the workers (my clue was the cake she had brought them). The customer did not answer but the manager left a message. I then called a friend to come and get me in the event that my keys were not retrieved, but, just as I was getting off the phone, the embarrassed customer who had just left called and said she was coming right back with my keys. When she arrived, she was apologetic. I was grateful.
In September of this year, President Obama gave to President Rouhani of Iran, a 2,700-year-old Persian artifact reportedly worth over a million dollars.* I found it upsetting that a country that vows to wipe Israel off the face of the world and professes no love for the U.S.A. should be a receiver of such a lavish gift. Several days ago it was reported that the gift was a fake that was made within the last twenty years, in China. **
A million dollar gift that turns into an insult. That’s big. A lost set of keys that would have been a major inconvenience to me and costly to have new ones made, not so big. A newborn baby astounds everyone. That’s unreal. But all in all, King Solomon, for me there are always new things under the sun.
*http://patdollard.com/2013/09/obama-gives-iranian-president-a-special-million-dollar-gift/
**http://investordiscussionboard.com/boards/politpub/re-griffin-artefact-returned-iran-us-fake
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