Life In A Nutshell: Healthy and Happy

I found myself at a shopping mall in the south end of the city today. I don’t often find myself that far south, unless I have a dentist appointment or am having a visit with my ophthalmologist. Today I caught a ride down with my buddy who was getting his eyes tested.

South Centre mall is far classier than the malls in my neck of the woods. The people seem to look at themselves in a mirror before they decide to go shopping and put on nice looking clothes. The people that populate the malls in my area of the city will deck themselves out in spandex, sweatpants, pyjama pants and t-shirts featuring their favourite heavy metal band. The southern stores cater to a higher class clientele as well; you know the kind of person that is in the mall to spend money on clothing, shoes or furniture instead of being there on a drug run.

I wandered through the mall while I was waiting for my buddy, watching the beautiful people clutching their new purchases in one exquisitely manicured hand, while holding a grande, double mochachino Peruvian coffee in the other. Life is good!

I spent a lot of the time just watching the people going about their business, moms with toddlers, older couples looking at things in the Disney Store for their grandkids, and the immaculately dressed women in all of the stores. I ended up on the second floor watching the world parade pass by me. I saw when the two security guards approached the two teenage girls and when one of the girls started to cry. They got up and the security guys walked them away. I have little sympathy for shop lifters as a rule, but this one had me hoping they would make a break for it. They just walked out of sight and even though I followed, I lost track of them quickly.

I went down to the main floor and sat by one of the three fountains, listening to the water falling into the pool. I noticed that the bottom of the fountain was littered with coins of all denominations. They were just sitting there within easy reach. Those girls should have helped themselves to the free cash instead of shop lifting. They might have gotten in trouble for that as well, but it’s much harder to prove that the wet coins aren’t yours than the t-shirt with a tag still on it is. If those fountains were in my neck of the woods, the money would be out of reach and more than likely protected by chicken wire.

I suppose that the people stop by the fountains, toss a coin in and make a wish. Wishes are nice things and I guess the beautiful people in the south end of the city have unfulfilled dreams as well. I wonder where all of that wish money goes? Sometimes there is a sign saying where the money goes when it is collected from the pool. Children’s Wish Foundation, the local soup kitchen, some worthy department in the hospital are all good places for wish money to be spent. I’d hate to think that it went for a mall employee Christmas party or even worse to the mall general revenue.

It doesn’t matter where the money goes, the wishes are out there and for some, those wishes will come true. Some won’t be as lucky, but not all wishes should be granted. I know that kids just like to toss money into the fountain, and to tell the truth, so do I. For me the wish is often secondary or I wish on behalf of someone else.