Wal-Mart Brother

Moving Along dept.

The other morning at Wal-Mart, as I was bagging my groceries, the guy who was there to check my receipt on the way out called me “Brother.”

As in, “You got it, brother.”

I was mildly shocked. I’m not sure why, but I guess the guy broke through the 4th wall, and treated me like a human.

Which was pretty nice.

Unexpected, but nice.

I’ll say this for Wal-Mart, they sure have a lot of stuff.

Like, just about everything you could want.

We might be getting to the point where Wal-Mart is the only store there is.

And instead of people getting paid to work there, we’ll all just take some shifts.

We’ll all work there, and we’ll all get our stuff there, and it’ll make sense that the guy checking my receipt would call me “brother.”

Maybe pretty soon, we will all be “brothers” and “sisters” under one banner, that of Wal-Mart.

Later, as I was at Wal-Mart for the second time that day, getting different stuff, I happened to see someone working there who I knew. Who I work with in a different place and context.

I said “Hi,” but they didn’t really acknowledge me.

Maybe they weren’t too happy about me seeing them in this context.

Or maybe they were just busy.

I get it, either way. I’ve had jobs where I didn’t necessarily want anyone from my other walks of life to see me.

I kind of wanted to say, “Hey, we are all brothers and sisters, at Wal-Mart.”

But I just moved along. I went and got some frozen fruit, for smoothies, and moved along.

If someone doesn’t want to engage with you, either because they don’t want you to see them, or just because they’re busy, then you do the honorable thing and move along.

I guess it was kind of a shock to see them there.

Just cause it was out of context.

Nothing against Wal-Mart.

If you knew someone from, say, your bowling team, and one day you saw them directing traffic with a police badge, or being a dog catcher downtown, you might be a little thrown.

Or you might not.

Maybe, for you, you just go with the flow, and when your English teacher is suddenly roping cows at the rodeo, maybe it doesn’t faze you at all.

To which I say, bully for you.

You are clearly higher on the spiritual ladder than I.

I’m catching up as best I can.

And now, I’ll move along.

Meanwhile….

Brotherhood.

Sisterhood.

Humanhood.

Yeah.

—

Here’s a song, just because.

“Ballerina”: