Awesome < KIND
The exercise of writing 40 articles a year helps with keeping me in practice.
Practiced at writing.
And also at forgiveness.
Because it’s simply not possible to write an “awesome” article every single week. (Or 40 times a year.)
And, I have (mostly) learned to forgive myself for that.
(Also, it helps to know that you don’t expect me to be “awesome,” “out of the park,” and/or “brilliant” every week.)
***
I’m sitting in my car right now, in an hour-long line to get my car tested for emissions.
It’s not awesome.
It’s something that needs to be done, but it’s definitely not awesome.
***
It would be nice if everything could be awesome all of the time—every movie I watch, every meal I eat, everything I say.
Never having to wait in line.
But it’s just impossible. As impossible as me writing brilliance every week.
***
A man, about 70 years old, wearing a light blue “I love dogs. Dogs make me happy.” t-shirt, approaches my car and stands at my window, which I roll down.
He tells me that the clerk at the booth “really messed up” and put him in the wrong lane.He asks if I’d mind if he pulled his dinged-up Ford Fusion in front of me.
I wonder if it really was the clerk, or if it was his difficulty following directions that got him in the wrong lane.
“I don’t have any money to offer you,” he says, reaching into a pocket where money could be.
“It’s alright. Just cut in front.”
“The woman in front of you,” he points in the direction of a maroon Honda CRV, “told me she’s been waiting too long to let me in.”
“I’ve been waiting, too. But it’s alright. Go in front.”
“My name is Greg,” he says, extending an arthritic hand.
“I’m Brian,” I say, shaking it.
“I thank you, Brian. It means a lot.”
“You’d do the same for me. Yes?”
“Of course.”
***
It wasn’t an “awesome” moment. Just a kind one. And that’s enough.
And, this article isn’t so great. But it’s enough.
The story about Greg was nice, but not really tied into my point about not striving for perfection all the time.
Which, if we get meta for a moment, relates to my point about things not needing to be perfect.
Let’s not exhaust ourselves striving for everything to be “awesome.”
Sometimes kind is enough.A
