Even after 7 years I can still remember the young man in the cutlery store.
My heart had stopped during the scene where Eowyn pulls out her sword. It became important to me to hold a sword in my own two hands. Ah, but where to go? Try looking up swords in the yellow pages! My quest led me to a cutlery store in one of the local malls. On the wall I saw Glamdring, Gandalf’s sword. That would have to do.
“I’ll bet working around all these swords must be wonderful for you” I said, expecting him to wax poetic about his dreams of battle and choice of weaponry. “Actually,” he told me,” I’m holding out for one of these.” He pointed to a block of kitchen knives. “I’m going to be a pastry chef!” How wonderful! “That was my son you spoke to. He was still in high school at the time.” So I asked the father if his son had followed his heart into the cooking world. It turns out he did, indeed, follow his heart…and became a nuclear engineer for the Navy. But he stills loves to bake!
I asked the young man behind the counter if I could please hold the sword. He brought it down and placed it into my trembling hands. I held it high – something they really don’t like you doing in the mall – as tears fell down my face.
Today I walked into that same cutlery store in the same mall, and told that story to the man behind the counter. He gave me a broad smile when I got to the part about the pastry knives.
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