I was in the parking lot of a surf shop a couple days ago, standing behind my truck with the tailgate down and trying to pull a fin out of my surfboard. Some guy in a sport coat and loafers with no socks got out of a sedan a few feet away and walked behind me and I heard a voice say with some degree of incredulity say ‘You ride surfboards AND horses?’

I followed his gaze into the back of my truck where my surfboard was laying across my saddle and said ‘Yeah, I suppose I do.’

And he just kept standing there, like I was supposed to say something else.

When I looked closer I saw that he was almost daydreaming… like he was sizing up his life as a contrast to mine. My boots, his loafers. My truck, his Jag. My worn hat over hair that hadn’t seen a brush in awhile, his well-styled, manicured look.

In that moment I thought that with a couple different choices along the way, I could’ve been him, and he could’ve been me.

I wondered if that’s what he was thinking too and the silence was getting kind of awkward so I turned back to close the tailgate. When I turned back around he was gone.

But not before I heard him say ‘That’s really cool, man.’

He wore his choices well, so I hope he’s a happy guy, too. We probably have different roles to play here, as we all do. I think a big part of happiness is when you get to a place where you know that you’re right where you’re supposed to be, at the right time.

If I’d had a new book with me, I’d have given him one. And if you get this far in this post, you can get one too. The hardcover is shipping early from Amazon, right now.