I work an unfulfilling day job.  It sucks ass and that’s all there is to it.  Most days are spent counting the seconds until I can go home.  And then there are days like Friday.

I am a sales representative for an elevator company and part of my job is to go and visit customers or potential customers.  Today I had to deliver a proposal to a potential customer.  I met a gentleman that I’ll call Jack.  Jack is probably 309 years old.  He’s shorter than I am, and at 5’1 that’s pretty amazing.

Jack is an artist, a painter, with his own studio.  I remember going to his studio as a child with my parents.  Small world that Jack and I live in.  Jack’s studio is freaking crazy.  Every inch is covered by art.  Some huge canvases, some small.  Toys from days gone by are sitting around the studio as if someone still plays with them.  There are dog toys everywhere on the floor.  It’s a bit dark and a lot dusty in there.  I love it.  I walk with Jack over to the elevator that is just as old as he is.  I don’t even need to see it really, the proposal I have with me doesn’t require a survey but Jack insists that we ride the elevator up to the top floor.

Every floor is the same as the first.  Dark, dusty and jam packed full of interesting things to look at.  Jack is great company, he’s been talking to me about nonsense the entire time.  By the time I reach the first floor I am halfway in love with this little man.  And then…

He says “Say, honey, you should come over here and look at this”.  He leads me over to a corner with an old ladder in middle of the floor and 2 giant portraits of a woman. “Do you know who this is?” he asks.  I tell him no, but that she looks very important.  He says “Well, she was important but I liked her because her dog would come with her every time I painted her and would just sit at her feet the entire time.  I like dogs more than people.  You know, I can’t eat meat anymore because I like the animals so much.”

And, really, isn’t that the point?  That animals matter?  How simple, yet eloquent.  How…..refreshing…..

Obviously now I know we are going to be very good friends.  I had a lovely 25 minute conversation with Jack about the animals.  I promised I would bring my dogs in for a visit and he told me that “the dogs are always welcome honey”.  It made me smile all day long….and still does.