September 28, 2006

How Are You?

I had an elk to meet, and was sprinting out the hotel's back door. But there was a man coming up the steps, lamely lifting his right foot for the final move, eyeing the door like a marathon runner straining for the finish line.

I slipped out into the cold Wyoming morning and held the heavy door open for him.

"How are you," he stammered out the American question.

"Happy," I answered.

"Happy?"

His quizzical response was as unexpected as my odd exuberance had been to him. His brow furrowed, his eyes squinted, and his one good hand clenched several times as he processed my "happy." Like Frodo processing an imponderable riddle. Finally he tugged his coat closer, frowned, and looked up at me.

"Happy?" He spoke it more as a statement of discovery than as a question. The word hung in the air as if he was testing the bouquet of a fine wine rather than freezing on the back porch of Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs Inn.

"Yes, I am happy!" I felt more than a bit stupid and tried to clarify my "tossed-off" response. "I'm happy to be in Yellowstone. Happy to be tripping over elk in the parking lot. Happy to smell sulfur in the air. And happy to open the door for a new friend."

He squinted again, like an exhausted Scrabble player digging for syllables that might form words.

"1991," he said with victorious effort. "In 1991...satellite engineer...electronics giant...in California." The cold morning lengthened his communication difficulty, but I settled in, admired the deep opal blue of his eyes, and ignored the gloved support on his useless right hand.

"Worked too much...too hard...too all...stroke...lost life...almost."

His eyes pierced into me searching for a glint of understanding. Satisfied that I was listening with more than just my ears, he took a deep cleansing breath, and then catapulted out two complete engineer sentences.

"I've not been able to do much since then, but have gotten some better. Now my wife and I go to national parks twice a year just to be happy. I am so glad to meet someone else who's happy! Isn't life wonderful!"

We embraced on the steps, celebrating together.

"I have come," Jesus said, "that you might have life, and have it to the full." John 10;10

Dick Duerksen
Storyteller
dick.duerksen@flhosp.org