Shellys commentary: Defining the best day of your life

All of us have had memorable days in our lives. Maybe it was the day you married, had your children, graduated from college, or got your first job. Those occasions stand out in our memories. Other memorable days are more serendipitous. We hear a speech or a sermon or have a unique experience.

We are impacted in some way. Then there are those days that we remember, because they are simply memorable. I had one of those experiences on Friday evening at Walmart. Who would have thought - Walmart?

I was in the produce department selecting bananas, a really mundane act. A woman, pushing her young son in a grocery cart, stopped nearby to examine lettuce. For some unknown reason, the little boy, about four or five years old, and I made eye contact. He said something I could not hear, so I asked his mother what he had said. She replied, “He hopes that you have the best day of your life.”

Did I hear right? He was just a little boy. I was a stranger. This was just a passing moment in time. After a brief exchange, we each went on with our shopping, but I couldn’t get what he had said out of my head or my heart. He hopes I have the best day of my life!

I wondered what that would look like – the best day of my life. Would it be a memorable day at the time or just a day that I wouldn’t recognize as the best day of my life? He likely wouldn’t give our exchange a second thought. To say such a thing may have been second nature and something he learned from his parents, but I thought there was something profound in what he said to me, a stranger, in the grocery aisle at Walmart.

When I got home from the store, I wrote about my experience on Facebook. I concluded with: “Children are so uncomplicated. They are so straightforward and honest. I have to wonder what would happen if we each hoped (wished) a stranger would have the best day in his/her life? If we weren’t ‘so adult’ we might just pass it forward. How about we do it and see what happens?” There were several comments: “Profound. Brillant child.” “Love this!” “What a brilliant idea.” “Yes.” Forty others left no comment, but I recognized the names, although I had not seen them for quite a while. Something in that incident had touched them or made them think.

Our adult-self would likely rationalize that the idea wasn’t a very good one and would worry about how the exchange would be perceived and received? Our adult-self would be afraid of rejection or judgement. It probably wouldn’t take much to talk ourselves out of passing it forward.

The child in us would just say it, because he knew it was a good thing to do. He didn’t worry about rejection or embarrassment. He assumed it would make someone happy to receive such a kindness. I hope that little boy went away from our shared experience affirmed and had received the same hope for the best day of his life.

That exchange reminded me of another memorable experience several years ago, only this time it was in the frozen food aisle at Walmart. A man approached me and said, “Hello, Mrs. Shelly. You don’t remember me, but I helped take care of your daughter, when she was very sick in the hospital. I was an anesthesiologist in our small, community hospital, but not on call that day. I had a certain medicine, which the doctors on duty knew your daughter needed. They called me, she received the medicine, and began her recovery.” He said he often thought about her and wondered what she was doing now. Later I shared his never-before-heard story with my husband. We parted ways in the frozen food aisle and continued our shopping. It was a brief and kind encounter. Just like the little boy, the man had touched my life in a profoundly, personal way. Perhaps, those are the kinds of events that make for the best days of our lives and they can happen in a grocery aisle without fanfare.

Why the grocery aisle? Because there was eye contact and a recognition, because time allowed it to happen, and because each of us let ourselves be vulnerable. Small human acts of kindness can change lives.

By the way, I hope you have the best day of your life!

Walter Shelly retired after 40 years as a professor of political science at West Texas A&M University. Linda Shelly retired after 33 years of teaching sociology at West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Shellys commentary: The best day of your life