Chicken tenders, bacon-cheeseburger with jalapeño

From Burger Fi next door.

Paper straw. 

Because Denver is liberally socially responsible, environmentally ultra conservative. 

Because plastic straws are killing our planet!

Although you get a huge fat plastic straw when you order a milkshake. They're so thick that you blow out your cheeks trying to suck them up through a big fat plastic straw. They're ridiculous. You have to wait until they melt just to suck some delicious chocolate milkshake into your over pressurized boca. 

The opposite of playing a trumpet.

I was set to take photos of customers. A lot of people came in after me. There was always a fairly large group of people ordering and reading the overhead menu. 

Except they were all very odd looking. 

All totally off the wall. 

I was the most normal looking person there.

Actually, at Burger Fi, abnormal is very normal.

As I finished my meal a very large man took up at a table near mine. 

Situationally aware, without watching me, he knew I was preparing to leave.

Apparently I'm more obvious than I think that I am.

As I stood up and put on my backpack I was looking at his deplorable shoes. 

Damn. Those are some disgusting shoes. Who even picks those?

The kind of trainers that are ill-fitting and get pushed out of shape by massive feet and great weight. His white socks are white-guy anti-style pulled over regrettable leg tattoos. His legs are thick as tree trunks.

The man is unusually large, much taller than myself and I'm tall, a bit misshapen as giants tend to be, huge legs, huge arms, oversized torso, and regular head. His head is too small for his body. His hair is uncut his blond beard is long and untrimmed. He is somewhat handsome in the face with no trace of vanity, above a wildly out of true confirmation body and very badly dressed and sorely unkempt. He is sloppy.

Like this guy except less muscular, longer unkempt beard, sloppier pants, ugly tattoos and failing shoes. The guy was a mess.

He said to me kindly, me a perfect stranger,  "I can throw that away for you."

He waited for me to compute what he said and to respond. 

He took away my tray for me and disposed the trash and set the tray in its place. Like a busboy.

"Are you going out this backdoor?"

"Yes."

He walked over to the back door ahead of me and held the door open that leads to patio seating. He waited there with the door opened for me to make my way to it. I'm slow. He is patient. He stretched out his massive arm and opened the gate to the sidewalk and kept both doors open for me to pass through them. 

Basically, I walked into his stretched out arms without touching him. 

I cannot believe this man is doing all this.

I can easily get through the doors on my own. They're easy to open, easy to manage. 

It's no problem at all. 

None at all. 

Yet I am loath to deny these people their good deed. I want them to feel good about helping others. So I do not dismiss their grace extended. I say, "Thank-you for all this. I do appreciate this. You are very considerate." 

I think God wants me to be kind to people who want to be kind to me. 

This happens

all 

the 

time. 

Everyday.

This must be the spiritual lesson for me: that people are generally filled with grace. Even the gigantic Viking goofballs. That people want to express grace. People are incipient angels. People are angels being made on imperfect Earth. This is the thing that I think that I'm seeing.

I must now pray.

"Jesus, is this the lesson for me? Amen."

Jesus: "Yep."