He was walking down Nolensville Pike in Nashville, his salt and pepper hair was blowing in the wind. I thought to myself, “He has an interesting face… I wonder what his story is?” I crossed five lanes of traffic on foot to catch up with him. It was obvious he had somewhere to be.
When I finally caught up I asked, “Where ya from?” He looked around as if I were talking to someone behind him. “I’m originally from Florida, but later moved to Seattle Washington and then to Nashville,” he told me. I laughed, “Why the heck would you leave Florida?” He smiled, “I didn’t have a choice, I was two and my parents moved.” I then replied, “I guess it would be hard to convince your parents to stay when you are only two.”
He then told me how he hated Washington because it was cold and rained all the time. However, he loves living in Nashville.
During our conversation he told me how he had a bag full of change that he took to a convenience store to exchange for cash. I told him that likely made for a good Sunday. He heart-fully agreed.
Marcus Aurelius, a Stoic philosopher and Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 once stated, “Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.” Stoic philosophers taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection", would not suffer such emotions.
I don't know that I would agree that anyone exists in today's times with moral perfection, but this man seemed to be very happy despite having little and living in a home with others.