Sunday, August 16, 2009

Gratuitous Compliments

I spent much of the morning puzzling over a compliment I received. After getting out of my car, which I had parallel parked in front of our local coffee shop, a woman getting into the car parked in front of me yelled, "Excuse me, Miss. You did a great parking job. Really beautiful," adding something about how there were two spots in front of hers in which I could have pulled in. There was no hint of sarcasm in her voice, so I smiled, mumbled a thanks, and went about getting my coffee.

But not without wondering just what she meant by complimenting me, of all things. I mean, I parked my car. I did not cure cancer. And it wasn't even a good parallel parking job. I get my 45-degree angle ok, but I never seem to cut the wheel to the left on time and always hit the curb. It took a bit of back-and-forth to complete the park.

I think my confusion comes from the lack of sarcasm in her voice. If she were sarcastic, I would used some of that colorful language Katie is so fond of. Or smiled reallly really sweetly and thanked her in the most saccharine tones, from the bottom of my heart, calling her a true American, a true hero. But she wasn't. There was actual warmth in her voice. Could she be one of people who have nothing to do all day but wonder how much more civilized the world was, when people would parallel park instead of trying to pull into every curbside parking space and people knew their place. Or one of those people who back in to spaces in parking lots just to remind me how my backward driving sucks. (I hate the backer-inners, btw. And anyway, how do you access your trunk?)

Worse still, was she committing a random act of kindness, believing that by bestowing this gratuitous compliment that has distracted me all morning, she was making the world a better place?

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