A New Sub Shop – Subplicity

Joe Park

I travel a fair amount.  With two locations for Alexander Interiors, I drive between Westlake, Ohio and McLean, Virginia meeting clients in my interior design business.  One of the things that helps pass the time is listening to audio books in the car.  I enjoy listening to novels, classics, and all things with a spiritual bent.  Along those lines I’ve become a big fan of Eckhart Tolle.

I have listened to A New Earth a couple times and discovered a world wide internet event in 2009 that Eckhart and Oprah had done together called A New Earth based on Eckhart’s book.  I have listened to this program numerous times.  The premise of the book is living one’s life with consciousness.  That means everything you do — being fully conscious in each moment.  Eckart has said that the goal is to have your inner purpose align with your outer purpose.  Everyone has the same inner purpose:  to be fully conscious in each moment.  The outer purpose will be different for each person.  When you live life fully conscious in each moment, each moment becomes sacred.

It’s not easy being fully conscious with all the mind chatter that goes on in one’s head.  Most people go through life thinking about not what they are currently doing but what they had done in the past or will do in the future.  The startling thing you see everyday is people looking like Zombies attached to their electronic devices surfing the web or texting — not being with the person they are with and certainly not being conscious.

But every now and then I meet someone special who personifies the ideal of being present in the moment.  I met him at one of my pit stops, Breezewood, PA.  Breezewood is a major truck stop and about the four-hour mark in my trek between Ohio and Virginia or 2 1/2 hours in reverse.  I stop at Starbucks to get my Passion ice tea and right next door is a new sub shop, Subplicity, where I get a sandwich for the road.  What sets this sub shop apart from the rest is that everything is made fresh on the spot.  I don’t eat meat so I appreciate my cheese being sliced fresh each time and they offer many more varieties of cheese than most places.  That’s where I met Joe Park.

Joe greets everyone with a wide smile, eager to please.  The first time I ordered my sub, the cheese was rolled before being assembled on the sandwich and I could see great care was being taken to make the sub special.  On a subsequent visit, Joe was training a new employee, Mike, who was to be the manager of the store, and I could see that Mike had adopted Joe’s care in doing his job.  I complimented Joe that he makes the best sandwiches.  Big smile.  Joe told me that it was an honor working with Mike, that he does a great job.  Joe lifts up everyone with whom he comes in contact.  That’s an art and a gift to all who know him.

As I walk to my car, I’m smiling because it’s those small moments in life that can brighten one’s day.  I look forward to my stop at Subplicity and am disappointed when Joe is not there, but I get the same delicious sub every time because Joe had trained everyone in the store.  What Joe has cannot be trained or a dollar value put upon it.  I see Joe being very successful with Subplicity and in life.  People love being around his type of energy.

A second location for Subplicity is going up somewhere in Maryland. If you see a big guy with a red shirt, tell him Kathy sent you.

Alexander Interiors, Westlake, OH and McLean, VA

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