Solitude and cacophany

On Tuesday, I drove over North Georgia, crying out foreclosure sales, and ended the day with a trip to Peachtree City for a closing. At the end of the closing, I drove over to Ted's Montana Grill and requested a seat for supper. It was around 7:30 that evening and the interior of the restaurant was bathed in the golden light of the dying day. After a few minutes, I was seated at a table, a fresh white tablecloth and cloth napkins at my place. Very soon after my seating, the waitress came and sat down across from me at the table. She spoke softly with me, inquiring about my needs and wishes. After some preliminary chat, she left me to attend to other customers and arrange for my glass of beer and a separate glass of water.

As I sat down, I looked around the restaurant. The decorations of these restaurants is comforting to me, all dark paneling and portraits of natural western scenes. The restaurant was relatively quiet and I was able to relax in the calm environment.

Later, my meal was brought to me and I was able to enjoy a meal of meat, potatoes and green beans in peace. The combination of the comfort food and the calm of the restaurant allowed me to come down from the long day of driving and crying.

Finally, my meal was completed, and paying for my sustenance, I slipped out the front door to the sidewalk outside. I visually located my car and began to walk across the concrete sidewalk to my car. Imagine the one hundred eighty degree alteration of my mood, when I soon heard the jazzy conversation of a young teenager, talking on his cellphone, his volume loud enough to allow everyone within fifty yards to hear his conversation. I glanced at him harshly and wondered what about his conversation he felt was so important to the rest of the shopping center.

A sense of peace is so hard to find in the world in which we live. Perhaps we should not expect so much from the average day. However, in a world in which phone booths are no longer found and the ability to make a telephone call is as close as the phone attached to our ear, the sound of music blaring from our cars and ipods, it is no wonder that peace and quiet are such short commodities.

On this day, the peace and relaxation I had found, was short lived, indeed. Something quickly shuffled to the past. Relived only as a memory.