On a warm, dark evening, I am driving two women into L.A. I haven’t known them long, but we are getting along well, and there is a friendly feeling in the car. One woman asks if we are in L.A. yet. I explain that we have been in L.A. for some time now, but we are on the fringes heading into the center.
The scene changes and I am in a little shop in a high end mall. There is a display stand in the center of the shop that exhibits very fine craftsmanship. It glows warmly with a combination of fine woods. The shopkeeper is nearby and I say to him that he must have spent a fortune on this piece. I am not sure what he is selling, but it feels like something rare and valuable. Even though we have just met, I feel very close to this man, and quite interested in him. It seems he has important information to impart to me.
As our communication unfolds, we are interrupted periodically by customers coming in to the shop. One customer is a very wealthy and worldly woman. While they are talking, I stay close behind the shopkeeper, touching him on the shoulder from time to time. I am surprised by the level of intimacy I assume with him. As their conversation continues, I whisper in his left ear,
“You can be anything this time around.
You can be anything, this time around.”
It is a kind of in joke, because we get it and she does not.