 Hi, my name is Mitch Mitchell. A couple of weeks ago I went to visit my mother out of town. Mom's 77 years old. Her memory isn't totally sharp, but she can take care of herself. But, you know, my mother has gone through some major physical changes over the last bunch of years. My mother was always kind of heavy. Well, I can just tell the truth. Mom was always heavy, at least as far as I knew her. Then when my dad got sick back in late 2001, mom started to lose a lot of weight. And she lost weight. She was trying to take care of my dad. And when my dad got worse, mom wouldn't eat because dad wouldn't eat. And then after dad passed, mom still really wasn't eating, even though I was trying to do what I could. And mom basically lost more than half of her weight. Mom's only 5'2", so you can imagine. And so she got to this point where she lost basically all of her strength, because mom at least could take care of herself as far as, you know, being physically strong. But she lost her physical strength and, you know, her joints and everything, you know, they all just kind of started to fail her in a way, to the point now that mom moves really slow. But because mom's memory also isn't the best, and it happens. She's 77 years old. You know, every once in a while it takes her a little while longer to think about stuff. So I went to visit mom and we went to Wegmans in Rochester area. Wegmans is a major grocery chain in the Northeast in case you don't know what Wegmans is. Best store, usually ranked in the top five for employee satisfaction, just to get that out of the way. Love Wegmans. As a matter of fact, I share a backyard with one of the Wegmans where I live. So there. Anyway, so we're at Wegmans and we've gotten all the stuff that she needed to buy because I go there every couple weeks to get the heavy stuff so that I can take it in the house instead. And we're there in line and they had these toys up on the side that had different dollar amounts. So I said to mom, oh, it looks like they've got toys here that they're looking for people to maybe buy and donate to the kids. And mom says, well, I usually try to give money instead. I said, okay, you know, however. So we get to the line and the woman runs everything through and mom pulls out some extra money to give to the woman. And I didn't know that Wegmans did that. Well, it turns out they don't. But I didn't know that at the time. I had a feeling that they didn't. So anyway, there's this guy behind her. Now, you know, he had seen everything kind of going on. He knew better, but he got behind it. So mom pays for the thing. Now she's trying to give this woman this extra $5. And the woman doesn't know what it is. And suddenly this guy starts beating on the whatever the thing is called for the grocery that you put your, your, your, you know, stuff on. He starts beating on it. And I got angry. I got angry to the point where I really wanted to hit this guy. I really did. I had all kinds of things flash in my mind, but I had to stay calm because I'm there with mom who didn't notice it. And what I said to mom is I said, okay, you know, let's, let's just go. We'll donate next time. I think this guy behind you is in some difficulty and needs to leave. And I just wanted to get my little pot shot out, but I really wanted to smack him around. And I sat there thinking, what's with this guy? My mother is 77 years old. He's at least close to my age, and he's going to be in that position one day. You know what? Cause we're all going to be in that position. And I was really angry. And I stayed angry for about 15 minutes, which really wasn't fair because now I'm trying to contain myself when I'm with mom who didn't notice him. And I'm not sure that she's noticing that I'm angry and trying to stay under control. And I was irked. And then I started to think about it a little later on. I said, you know what, Mitchell? Truth of the matter is sometimes you have a little bit of that difficulty. You know, like I said, mom moves really slow. You want to know how slow mom moves? We will stop at subway. This, this is the thing I go up there and mom says, I want to go get a tuna sub at subway. This is mom's thing. Mom eats pretty much the exact same thing every single day. But when I go up, we now go to Subway. Yeah, she can't go to Subway on her own. She needs me. I don't know why, but that's just how it is. So whenever we go to subway, then we swing over to McDonald's, get her a strawberry shake and we get home. It usually takes 15 to 20 minutes before mom will start eating. The reason being, she has to make sure that everything is all set down in the kitchen. We bought stuff. Usually I put that like I said, I put heavy stuff away, but sometimes she has her little puttering to do. Then she has to go upstairs, which takes her a long time to get upstairs, because she has to change because she says, I can't have tight stuff on me when I eat because it makes me uncomfortable. I'm thinking, you know what, mom, you wait 115. What tight stuff do you have? But you know, the elastic, I guess, bothers her. So she has to go upstairs. She has to change. Then whatever consumes her mind upstairs, because I don't follow my mother upstairs to watch her change, she has to do with that. Then she has to come back downstairs. Now she has to go get her beanos, because well, the beanos help to beat the gas, which you wouldn't have if you weren't drinking the milkshake. But I understand because you know what, I have my few predilections as well, you know what, I get them from her. And now she'll sit down with the sandwich and she'll open it up. Then she'll think of something else she has to go get and whatever. Meanwhile, that milkshake, and you know, if it wasn't the strawberry milkshake, I might have like had a sip or two, but no, I hate strawberry. And that milkshake's just kind of withering away and then mom sits down and eventually starts to eat and by that time I'm done. And sometimes I'll sit there with her or sometimes I'll go sit in the chair in the living room and we're sitting there watching Little House on the Prairie, because that's what mom likes to watch. But it's one of those kind of things where I've had to kind of get used to things like that. My mother doesn't move that well, we had the handicap sticker on the car. And, and you know, I thought about that. You know, I've always been a fast walker. When I was in my 20s, that was one thing that I was impressed with myself about, you know, not a whole lot, you know, because we all kind of be ourselves up, but I was always the fast walker. So if I went to the mall, I was the fast walker, if I didn't go to the lake as much in my 20s. But if I did, I was a fast walker and I was always the one that people had to kind of keep up with and I had to slow myself down. Now, I find myself at the lake thinking I'm this fast walker. And then here comes these little girls and I got a little 20 year old girls. I'm just saying it that way. Who just like zip by me as if I'm standing still. And I'm like, dad, what happened to me? I thought I was moving along. Well, you know, I'm kind of huffing puff in here. And they're just bypassing me like nothing. Yeah. You know, I could, I could be ashamed of myself. But I said, you know what, at least I'm out here trying to do this. I'm exercising. I don't beat anyone else up. But I thought about the patients thing, because I've had to be patient with myself. Mitchell, you're 56 years old, you can't totally keep up with everyone like you could anymore. If I'm at the mall, and I'm behind these people who are walking really slow and there's no lane to pass them, I have to tell myself, calm down, relax, walk a little slower. Just look at stuff. You know, you can't go beating people up. You can't go zipping in and out because frankly, you don't have that zipping in and out speed anymore. I still have a dexterity. I could still slide between people for a guy my size that that's pretty impressive. I can slide between people without touching them, or I can give my quick excuse me. And if they give me a little little space, bam, I'm through it. Don't bump into people. But I do realize that sometimes you just have to relax and slow down. And I tell that to you folks today, because that's what this is all about. Sometimes you have to relax and slow down. Stop trying to rush up on people in your car and get real close to them because they're not going as fast as you want them to slow down. If they're going slower than the speed limit, well, you know what, that's just tough. You know, stop hitting the horn, stop riding people. My God, I hate that. I've actually followed a couple of people home and that freaks them out. Okay, that was years ago. I stopped doing that because I'm a black man in America and I don't live in a black neighborhood and I started to realize, you know what, that's the kind of thing to get you killed. So, you know, I'm not looking to get killed. I'm not looking to hurt myself. I'm not looking to hurt anybody else. The rest of you, slow down, calm down. Patience really is a virtue sometimes. You know, we have to take other people into consideration because you know what? It's going to be you someday. It's going to be me. I'm already slowing down and I thought I was walking really fast and I'm 56. I'm going to get slower, but I'm not going to get smaller. And I'm just saying, you know, there could be that kind of thing. You never know. Yeah, okay, you know, I'm not going to smack anybody. I don't care any weapons. I'm realizing that I'm not as strong as I used to be anymore. Yeah, it is what it is. So, do you have patience? Do you think you should have patience? Do you know somebody else who needs patience? Let me know your thoughts on this below. Share it with people. Discuss it amongst yourselves. Like I said, you're going to be in this position if you're lucky to live long enough to get here. It's going to get us all. I'm Mitch Mitchell. Let me know your thoughts. Y'all take care.