Check the line.

(From 4/22/10)

Eight years after receiving your Oregon driver's license, you have to renew it. DMV isn't open on Mondays so Tuesday is their Monday which also happens to be my Saturday and also the most convenient day for me to go. Of course, there was a huge, gigantic, no good, way-too-big line. Trying to be positive, I waited patiently. I knew I just had to get it over with so I could go along with my day.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the motions of life that I forget to look around, to observe, and to realize somehow we're all in this together. At the DMV, they had a lady going through everyone in line to make sure we had all the right documents and pieces of identification to make the process go as smooth as possible. A couple people had to leave because they wouldn't be able to do anything for them without... whatever necessary thing. She asked me, "What are you here for?" and I told her. Being my father's son, I had everything perfectly ready to go (except I didn't go right when they opened as he would have). There was a pleasant man behind me in line who made some small talk, mostly about the line, and funny little things about DMV or people in line. He was asked the same question as me, and was also prepared, but his response was one that caused the world to stop for a moment. The noisy atmostphere suddenly dulled to what I remember as silence as the man said, "Well, my wife passed away so I'm here to take her off the title." Ugh. We all have hard things even when we forget because we can't see beyond our own.