imagine my surprise

when i went into a tim horton’s

to

order a dozen bagels

of a random variety

and

after the counter person put them into a bag for me

a random worker

from the drive-through section

stormed up

yelling out

“my customer wants a plain bagel and that’s the last one!”

and proceeded to try to reach into my bag to retrieve it.

all i could say was

“hey, those are the bagels that i just bought!”

and

she stopped

with her hand in mid-air

and

looked around

at all of us

standing in front of the counter

and

went back to the drive-through

without another word

and

without another plain bagel

and

i wondered if that had really just happened.

yes, yes it had.

—
“i’ve said this before, and i say it again.

bagels can be an enormous power for good or for evil.

it is up to us to decide how we will use them.”

-daniel pinkwater