Yesterday I went for a drive, deciding to stop only at places previously unknown to me. I ventured upon a Chinese restaurant in Poway, California and was waited on by a Thai woman named Pauline. Pauline smiled brightly and looked me in the eyes, before asking my name, something few other waitresses have ever bothered doing before. The food arrived and it was above average, but Pauline was a five-star experience, sharing sustenance and joy with me and all her other customers. When she brought the check, I asked her the secret to happiness. “No secret,” she replied, “just be happy.” I paid my bill and as I walked away she came to the door of the restaurant and waved goodbye to me. In the car I cracked open my fortune cookie and read, “Turn off the TV and the computer and exercise your mind with a good book.” And so I read in my car on the hot asphalt of that altar/mall parking lot for half an hour, full of food and joy. ~Lucas Parable
