The Artist and His Creation
I invite you to look very closely at the photo. Hector, a waiter in his day job and an artist when no one’s looking, is posing in his diner with Sponge Bob Square Pants.
Hector had created Sponge Bob during a slow period. When my friend asked our waiter if the Crab Patty on the menu was the Krabby Patty from Sponge Bob Square Pants, our waiter asked if we’d like to meet Sponge Bob, that he’d shown up at the diner a few hours earlier.
And that’s how my friends and I lunched with a celebrity. I apologize for not posting Sponge Bob’s autograph as proof, but he had no hands.
No, Hector wasn’t our waiter. I’d asked our waiter to bring the artist to us, that we wanted to congratulate him on his fine work. While the photo was being taken (and immediately posted on Instagram and Facebook by my friends), our waiter, Darrian, was in the diner’s kitchen, busily formulating something he called a “contraption” to help Sponge Bob drink his water. It would have been rude for us to eat and drink in front of him. I asked Darrian to help. Darrian returned with two straws he’d somehow fused together. I don’t ask artists how they create their masterpieces. I’m here to appreciate, not interrogate. After performing minor surgery on Sponge Bob’s mouth, Darrian inserted the straw. Sponge Bob was cool with it.
The fresh hole in Sponge Bob’s mouth performed double duty. Darrian, ever the thoughtful host, brought Sponge Bob a single French fry when he served our meals. The fry casually dangled from Sponge Bob’s mouth while we ate, reminiscent of Sinatra in his heyday.
You’ll notice Sponge Bob is wearing the requisite Sponge Bob tie. Darrian, in addition to performing mouth surgery, fashioning contraptions and waiting tables, is an accessories designer specializing in elegant white paper ties and dashing white paper caps. The man has mad skills.
Sponge Bob would have sported an actual sombrero if the kitchen manager hadn’t recently taken it home with him. I was sorely disappointed. I wanted to know why the kitchen manager had taken his sombrero home, and I commanded Darrian to bring him to our table for an explanation. Darrian was a little shy about giving his boss orders. Go figure. I told Darrian to get his boss in front of us pronto. My wish was Darrian’s command.
We welcomed the kitchen manager to our table like a long-lost friend, joking with him and thanking him for putting a smile on our faces. He laughed right along with us, and his eyes twinkled. After he left, Darrian thanked us for making him do what we wanted. He told us he’d scored major points with the kitchen manager, and he gave us the thumbs up sign with both thumbs. You go, Darrian!
By the time we’d finished our lunch, nearly all of the diner staff had fallen in love with the three of us. We laughed, we made everyone part of our party, and the diner had magically become the most fun diner ever. The place was nearly empty when we arrived. By the time we’d left, it was nearly filled. Patrons who didn’t know us were attracted to our energy. We left a happy and loving energy trail. I hope the next diners at our table felt it.
Each one of us has the power to uplift a room filled with people or depress a room filled with people. To heal or not to heal, that is the question. I’d privately decided to be as goofy as possible before we entered the diner. I wanted my friends to have a vacation from grieving. I understood how it was to be them. My father suddenly died when I was seventeen years old, and I remember how it had felt to be me. The three of us laughed our way through lunch. When we were at the diner, business was very good and the patrons mostly looked happy.
The young house manager wasn’t a fan. I took him aside and thanked him for allowing us to have so much fun, that my two friends were grieving the recent unexpected death of their young husband and father, and they really needed to laugh. I don’t know if he understood. It was important for me to honor him for allowing us to be lively.
I asked Darrian’s birthday as we said goodbye. His birthday was the same date as my father’s. My father passed away 45 years ago. I turned to my twelve year old friend, the little girl who’d recently lost her father, and said, “Honey, that’s how it works. I don’t know what made me ask Darrian’s birthday, and I had no idea he and my father had the same birthday. Darrian and my father having the same birthday is my father saying hi to me through Darrian. You’ll see the same thing happen to you. You may not see him, but your father is with you, as my father is with me.” She smiled, and her smile lit up all three of us.
You can do this, too. I invite you to look for opportunities to bring more love and laughter and healing into your world every moment of every day and then do it.
With or without Sponge Bob.
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