A Life of Wonder

There’s a small Italian man in his 80s with a beautiful smile. He cares for his lawn and the lawns of his neighbors. He is in no hurry. He takes pride in the doing: the chopping, the cutting, the planting, and the pruning. I’ve never seen him touch a mobile phone. He’s never seen me without one. One day, I asked his help to remove a tree. But first he watched me attempt it on my own: trying to rock it, uproot it, even will it to fall over. After several unsuccessful tries, I abandoned the task to eat lunch. When I returned, he had removed the tree. He looked at me kindly and said nothing.