TGIM 1-16-12
Annie Proulx’s award-winning short story was made into an award-winning film. Do you remember it? Brokeback Mountain.
Proulx lives in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming (there’s a lot of middle of nowhere in Wyoming). Most of her stories are about the rugged landscape, the culture and the characters that inhabit them. A favorite of mine is Close Range: Wyoming Stories.
Eight years ago Earl and I bought 17 acres of Wyoming, an old fishing lodge 40 miles from a tiny town and a few hours from Yellowstone. Since then, I’ve been unintentionally gathering my own Wyoming stories. No chance you’ll confuse me Annie Proulx, but bear with me as I share a recent one.
I was in town and in need of lunch. The taco joint offers decent fare and is always fast and clean, so soon I was in line to give my order. “The tostada is a flat corn tortilla with fixings on it, right?” I asked. She nodded and asked if I wanted beans, chicken or beef. “Can I have both beans and chicken?” “Yep, we’ll get that right up for ya.” I paid, took my little tented plastic placard that said “78”, found a table and waited. Before long a server appeared with my tostada, exchanged it for the placard and left. I peered into the tostada- huh, no beans.
Back to the order window with the news. The order taker handed the cook my plate and yelled, “Hey, ya left off the beans on this!” “Nope”, the rough-hewn 60ish woman replied, “ya get beans OR chicken, not both.” “Look at the order ticket, it says both”, the order taker shot back. The cook slammed down her spatula, grabbed my tostada, pitched it in the trash and glared at us both. After a beat she made quite a production of my new chicken AND beans tostada and handed it over, still fuming. I skulked back to my table, appetite diminished by the fray.
What happened next is the real story, a kind of behavior I’ve seen more than once in Wyoming and always teaches my hard New Yorker heart a lesson.
I saw a shadow over me and looked up into the tired face of the cook. “I came to apologize”, she said. “I have been fighting with the order girl all day and that’s not your fault. I took it out on you and that was wrong. I’m sorry.” I opened my mouth but no response came out. Then she was gone.
Here is what that Wyoming story taught me. I think it’s a worthy lesson about bad behavior, grace and dignity.
• Take responsibility for your behavior. Own up and don’t blame others.
• Clean it up with the person(s) directly affected.
• Don’t expect glory for your good behavior. Do it for its own sake.
• Move on with dignity. You did the right thing and everybody is better for it.
TGIM: Thank God It’s Monday! Stay strong.
love,
margaret
