{"id":22184,"date":"2017-02-01T21:43:34","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T03:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=22184"},"modified":"2017-05-07T16:47:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-07T21:47:55","slug":"your-words-of-kindness-can-show-love-to-strangers-struggling-in-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=22184","title":{"rendered":"Your words of kindness can show love to strangers struggling in life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I was about to leave Chick-fil-A Wednesday evening when I noticed a young woman come in who looked exhausted — as though she had been battling monsters all day.<\/p>\n

She was tall and slim, with straight black hair and dark brown skin. She wore black pants and a tailored solid blue shirt that fit her frame tastefully.<\/p>\n

Even though she seemed tired, she looked graceful and elegant. She looked lovely.\u00a0We met one another near the door and spoke politely as we passed.<\/p>\n

Then as she stood at the counter waiting for someone to take her order, I quickly went over and spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look fantastic, by the way,” I said. “That combination looks great on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

She seemed mildly surprised and then she smiled weakly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

I turned to leave and I thought we were finished. I didn’t have any ulterior motive in complimenting her. I just thought she looked great and that she deserved to be told.<\/p>\n

I walked outside.<\/p>\n

I had just gotten to my car when I realized she had followed me out and was hurrying to catch up with me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted you to you how much I appreciated you saying that,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve had a really rough day and you made me feel good about myself. I needed that. Thank you for taking the time to say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

We shook hands and said our goodbyes.<\/p>\n

She went back inside to order and I drove away smiling to have had a positive effect on the life of a random human being.<\/p>\n

I found myself remembering an alleged Mark Twain quote on the subject. Twain allegedly wrote,\u00a0\u201cI can last two months on a good compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sincere compliment can lift my spirits and change my outlook on the world, at least briefly. A compliment can make my heart feel full and make my spirit soar. I hate caring what others think, but their compliments can mean a lot to me when I believe they’re sincere.<\/p>\n

Almost all of us have a strong need to be appreciated — and we’re usually too busy thinking about ourselves to tell others the genuinely good things we think about them.<\/p>\n

Even if we think good things, we’re typically afraid to be vulnerable enough to walk up to a stranger and deliver a sincere compliment, because we know it can easily be misinterpreted. But sometimes, it works, and those times make the risk worthwhile.<\/p>\n

That little encounter left me feeling good, because I felt that I’d had a sincere, genuine exchange with a stranger. She needed something tiny from me, even though it cost me nothing to give it.<\/p>\n

I live on a planet where I feel more like an alien than like one of the natives. It\u2019s in those rare moments of connection with a human being when I feel as though I might belong here after all — and that feels good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was about to leave Chick-fil-A Wednesday evening when I noticed a young woman come in who looked exhausted — as though she had been battling monsters all day. She was tall and slim, with straight black hair and dark brown skin. She wore black pants and a tailored solid blue shirt that fit her Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-5LO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22184"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22309,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184\/revisions\/22309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}