Rorschach and the old man

10:00 a.m. and there was no line at the bank today. What kept me was an interesting conversation I struck up with an elderly couple.

An old man in his 80's walked in and announced with arms outstretched, "Who wants me?", There were four tellers all waiting for a customer and we all giggled. The wife cheerfully marched along with him to the counter. The man was wearing a black shirt with a colorful logo of bright yellows, black, orange and neon green streaks, and a pair of khaki bermuda shorts, trendy I thought!

I couldn't figure out the unstructured design so I asked,

"What's the logo? ".
He had a big smile for me and asked,

"What do you see in it?".
"A frog's head with huge eyes, and the body of a bear", I responded innocently.

"Aha!", he exclaimed.

"There you go. There are no bad or good answers.

It's Rorschach. Do you know what that is?"

I humbly said,

"Yes, I do. But sir, that's not an inkblot. It's more like an abstract artwork."

And the wife smiled, they sat me down and I listened to his whole dissertation about the controversial Rorschach test. The witty old man was kidding, of course, about the logo. It was really a piece of artwork. The lesson is that, life abounds in the young and old. Growing old to the 80's doesn't have to be boring or the beginning of an end. The wife said they are also conservationists, active members of The Nature Conservancy and she proudly wears the shirt too. What an interesting couple - upbeat, full of life and ready to share their experience in life.

We all walked out together and he just couldn't help it and said," It's Nike. Just do it. That slogan may work for someone else but me". He was sharp, very funny and must have been a psychologist in his younger times. The chance encounter with this couple was a powerful antidote to my earlier experience at the dentist. It's so uplifting to be around people like them, wipes out the fear of aging in a way.

The old man and his wife. What do you see? I saw a couple growing old gracefully.