Intersecting Thoughts

While waiting for a green light on the drive home today through Salt Lake downtown three gents crossed the street and one could not help but notice the mechanics and apparent hierarchy of the group. Three men in business suits all carrying briefcases all cold and all cheery to have completed there work for the day. The first was the eldest and most portly of the bunch with a long suit jacket and worn gloves and briefcase that suggested a comfortable settling into a daily weekly monthly yearly pattern of use and wear. Each gray hair working tirelessly to keep hold the trenches against the onslaught of the winters cold as gray comrades are lost to the enemy more and more each day. The second walked as if a shadow of the first; keeping pace and rhythm with his mentor with the hopes those gray hairs would soon be gone and he could take the reigns of whatever it is the bunch was reigning on. And the last is the one that really gave away the contrast of the groups hierarchy. A younger skinnier bloke who stepped lightly and still bounded in his steps suggesting an excitement for this new career or sense of accomplishment being associated with such great colleges. Shorter suit jacket and lack of scarf suggesting his unaccustomed disposition to the daily requirements of comfort the others had come to understand over the years. As they completed their pecking order across the street the three split off on their routes home. The first two following a similar route and perhaps the middle having changed his route to be able to pass more time with the headmaster to further learn his ways before the gray hairs ran out. While the youngest of the bunch broke off and looked on ahead at his own path, as anyone walking down the street would do, but it only slightly divulged of eventually leaving this group and continuing on his own path. Perhaps the wisps and whims of youths indecision distracting his vision of a continued future with the three or maybe just the hope that some day things would be different. An "If I owned the company I would..." thought keeping his head clear of the brown mess accumulating on the seconds head. And then as the light turned green and we accelerated through the intersection I considered what I had in the kitchen cupboards to put down before the cold took hold of the evenings plans.