universal.

Our little (as in the children are mostly small, although the number of them is not – alright?) family was eating street side recently at a favorite wood-fired pizza joint.

( Side note: I like eating outside at restaurants.    1.  Our noise level seems less obvious out of doors.    2.  Our mess level seems less obvious out of doors.    3.  The kids seem more entertained out of doors.    4.  Fox can stay in his stroller and there is plenty of space to park that big rig out of doors. )

Oh – and I like people watching.

Which is what I was doing when I saw a family of four exit a skateboard shop right beside us.

This family did not look exactly like our family.  They had two children – teenagers it appeared.  Their clothes were different than what we might choose.  They had more tattoos.  (Oh, wait – maybe they didn’t now.  I think I keep forgetting we joined the tattoo ranks.)  Their accents were not southern.  (Or American, actually.  Maybe Scottish?)

Their son had just purchased a skateboard.  (I think it was black and red and it looked like the drippy red letters on the bottom of the skateboard spelled out something about death.)

But here’s what else I noticed.

I watched the teenaged son grinning shyly as he held his new board.

His parents positioned him in front of the skateboard shop’s hip sign and began flashing their camera at him as he sheepishly grinned and gave a low thumbs up.

And I figured something.

I bet when that mom and dad looked at their gangly teenager through their camera’s lens, what they saw was more than a ruddy face with braces.  They probably saw a three-year-old boy blowing out his birthday candles.  And a five-year-old son taking off his bike’s training wheels.

They saw their boy.

And they felt love.

For all he had already been.

For what he currently is.

For all he will some day be.

Just love.

Straight up (Paula Abdul-style), heavy hitting, all embracing parental love.

And I recognize that.

In any attire.  Through any dialect.

Love.

Beautiful in its simplicity.

And completely universal.