As the time for giving thanks is upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my gratitude for someone I just met and will probably never see again. His name is Cortez. I don’t know his last name.
Cortez is a handsome African American young man, probably in his mid-twenties. Today he was sitting behind a counter wearing a bright red Oxford cloth shirt with a good looking striped silk tie to match. And although he was working, he had a smile a mile wide which lit up his whole face.
He works at a cell phone store in the Jersey suburbs as a technician. That means that when things go wrong with your phone, you go to a specified area in the back of the store where Cortez tries to fix it. If he can’t, and you don’t have insurance, he will send you to the retail section where you will need to buy a new phone – starting at $195.99.
My cell phone of three months won’t hold a charge. “It got wet,” he tells me, showing me the faded crosses on the inside of the phone. Go figure. I can’t imagine how it happened (no, I don’t take it with me into the bathroom), but the phone is unfixable never the less. Of course there’s no insurance. I never buy it. On principle. There’s something about having to insure a new piece of equipment that really rubs me the wrong way. If I didn’t have the expectation that something brand new would work, why would I buy it in the first place? As you can see, I am one of those people who would be heading for the retail section of the store to buy another phone. Starting at $195.99.
But today, Cortez broke the rules. He gave me a new phone for the price of a new battery. For $29.95. He offered it up to me as one would a gift to a friend, not needing to hear pathetic pleas or a hostile harangue, or see me reduced to the humiliation of tears. He whispered to me conspiratorially, but without conceit, that his co-workers wouldn’t have done it. “They never break the rules,” he said. I almost jumped over the counter and planted a big kiss on his beautiful brown cheek.
Thank you Cortez, my fellow explorer, for your courage, for your compassion. For helping out a fellow human whose monthly writer’s income has declined right along with her country’s shaky economy.
Yes, I know that in a civilized society, rules are very important. They keep us all in line and able to live with one another. Traffic, sports and parliamentary procedure depend on them. But I have to admit that there is something marvelous about those who are willing to break the rules – from time to time, particularly to help someone out. I, for one, have always loved Robinhood. I love rule breakers. I love Cortez.
P.S. In addition to all you rule breakers out there, I am grateful for the many loving people in my life – my darling family, my dear friends, my esteemed colleagues, my valued clients – teachers one and all, those who make this sometimes challenging but always wondrous walk worthwhile.
Sixties Chick 