This is yet another of my supermarket encounters. Walking in at about the same time as another fellow: his appearance spoke loudly. He was quite overweight, to the point where it affected his ability to walk smoothly. He had a mop of unkempt hair and a scruffy, dark, unshaven face. He was wearing a tshirt that was stained and some baggy pants. I quickly concluded that this was another unfortunate person struggling with modern life.

But as I was pulling out my shopping cart and turning it to go into the store I saw him still behind me. There was a display of rows of glass jars, each with a little plant seedling growing in it.

He had stopped to look at the seedlings in the jars and he now had a grin of total, uninhibited joy on his face. He was transported by the  baby plants in jars.

I didn’t stay to see if he took one, and perhaps foolishly, didn’t join him in his moment of joy. I just went shopping.

But his look of utter joy has stayed with me for days; I can still see his magnificent grin, lodged in that unshaven face, refusing to agree with the story I had concocted of who he was.