sonora2sonoma

A chance encounter after breakfast

with Adolfo, the Maitre’d

at the restaurant where I’d just finished a fine breakfast,

eggs over easy, cooked to perfection!

Adolfo told me he’d once asked his nineteen year-old son

“Do you ever look up at the night sky?”

And his son had replied “Why?”

He spoke of how young people

are so focused on social media

that they are absent from the present.

Adolfo said he told his son

“Life moves fast.

If you don’t slow down,  you’ll miss it.”

He spoke of cell phones

He said “I told my son I wish he’d call me more.

He replied ‘text me!’”

Adolfo said “I like to hear your voice.”

He spoke of how young people seem to have a sense of entitlement . .

How they just expect everything to go their way.

Adolfo painted a portrait of his son and him

living in two different worlds–

one fast and disconnected from the real world

the other grounded, connected to the earth.

He said he had some property, down in Mexico

where he and his wife plan to move in a few years

after he retires.

Adolfo said  his property is way out in the country

and his son has taken to city life;

he doubted his son would like it there.

Nevertheless, Adolfo said of his son,

“my door will always be open to him.”

Panamint Springs

March 30, 2017

Tim Konrad