Perspective?

I met two very interesting ladies today.

1.) One was probably in her mid fifties and completely illiterate. Like couldn't write and COULD NOT READ.

At first this might not seem like a big deal. You always hear stories of people who are illiterate. There are movies about them, tutoring opportunities to help them.

But actually MEETING someone who could NOT read?

Could you IMAGINE? Going through your daily activities and not being able to read. It was absolutely mind-boggling.

2.) The other women I met that day was wearing a dog-tag necklace with a picture of a soldier on it. I asked her who it was. She took a big gulp of air and said proudly, "My son." She told me that he was on his third deployment to Afghanistan and he was killed 4 days before he was to come home. He was 22 years old.

Once again. How many horror stories like this do we hear every, single day? All over the news. All over the movies.

This also was my first, personal encounter with a woman SO deeply affected by the wars.

She showed me the website her son's widow had made in his honor. It was a home-made website and I was in tears within seconds. School photos, wedding pictures, all of a 22 year old boy who gave up EVERYTHING.

Then lunch rolled around. I got out my lean cuisine, my plastic fork and my gossip magazine. It was showing a list of the things that Kim Kardashian and her fiance Kris had registered for, for their wedding next weekend.

On the list? a $7,000 vase and a $880 salad serving spoon. Yikes. Have a tad lower budget? That's okay! You could get them a $43 butter spreading knife! My personal favorite? A $3,125 ash tray! NEITHER KIM OR KRIS EVEN SMOKE!

I mean hey. I watch the Kardashian shows just like everyone else and love me some cute little baby Mason pictures. This isn't about Kim being a horrible person (I don't think she is at all) or anything about them as a couple. This is ALL of our faults. I buy into it. I buy PEOPLE and US weekly. I read the tabloids and talk about the royal wedding and who is engaged to who and blah, blah, blah. and usually? I don't think ANYTHING of it.

I couldn't even stomach that stupid magazine that lunch break. All I could think about was the look of shame and pure embarrassment in that women's eyes when I asked her to fill out the paper and she had to say she didn't know how to read.

The pure heartbreak in the women's eyes when she told me how her son was raised is Mexico but still had a dream of fighting in the US army. About how her and her daughter-in-law were already planning his "welcome home" party when they got the news they didn't have anyone to go pick up at the airport next week. Could you even imagine? I sure couldn't.

I just don't ever want to forget the look in those women's eyes and how much my heart hurt. How bad I wanted to make a difference in people's lives after meeting them. When I get all caught up in why my skinny jeans definitely are not making me look skinny, or complaining about how much Weight Watcher's cost?

Those two women will never see this and I will more than likely never even see them again, but I just hope they know how much their stories and that short 5 minute encounter meant to me. I just hope I am as brave enough as them to keep smiling. :)