Undeserved gratitude, and how grateful I am for it
July 27th 2007 12:00
There’s nothing quite like the pure gratitude of people to brighten your day. People saying ‘Thank you’ make the world go round, as much as anything else attributed to that cliché. It gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling like having influenza, only without the negative symptoms like headaches, aches and pains, blocked nasal passages, and in the case of the 1918 epidemic, death.
But there’s nothing better than being thanked for something that didn’t require any effort at all, like pretending to listen to a speech, or volunteering to do something that you have no intention of doing. It’s like finding twenty dollars in the breast pocket of a jacket that hasn’t been worn for twenty years. But that’s another story altogether.
There’s a sign adjacent to the caravan park near where I live that says the following: “Thank you for driving safely and caring for our children.”
What a gracious sign. It cost me nothing to comply, and I get kudos for it. As far as I’m concerned, driving slowly isn’t so much an option but an inescapable consequence of owning a Honda Civic. But it is nice to be thanked for the inevitable reality of the situation.
But I don’t really know how to respond to “caring for our children”. I’m not really involved with caring for children. Unless driving slowly and cautiously counts as caring for kids. But my cautious driving comes not so much for my care for kids as much as my care for my beloved Civic, Kevin. Running over a seven-year-old would ruin both my and my car’s day. Presumably the seven-year-old as well, but who knows how their minds work. Eventually the game of ‘Chicken’ reaches the stage that sooner or later someone’s got to get run over to win.
If driving slowly actually counts as caring for kids then I would be an awesome parent. In fact, I should open up a child care centre. I’ll put the kids on the side of the road, and they can observe me not running them over.
Not that a Civic would do that much damage anyway.
But there’s nothing better than being thanked for something that didn’t require any effort at all, like pretending to listen to a speech, or volunteering to do something that you have no intention of doing. It’s like finding twenty dollars in the breast pocket of a jacket that hasn’t been worn for twenty years. But that’s another story altogether.
There’s a sign adjacent to the caravan park near where I live that says the following: “Thank you for driving safely and caring for our children.”
What a gracious sign. It cost me nothing to comply, and I get kudos for it. As far as I’m concerned, driving slowly isn’t so much an option but an inescapable consequence of owning a Honda Civic. But it is nice to be thanked for the inevitable reality of the situation.
But I don’t really know how to respond to “caring for our children”. I’m not really involved with caring for children. Unless driving slowly and cautiously counts as caring for kids. But my cautious driving comes not so much for my care for kids as much as my care for my beloved Civic, Kevin. Running over a seven-year-old would ruin both my and my car’s day. Presumably the seven-year-old as well, but who knows how their minds work. Eventually the game of ‘Chicken’ reaches the stage that sooner or later someone’s got to get run over to win.
If driving slowly actually counts as caring for kids then I would be an awesome parent. In fact, I should open up a child care centre. I’ll put the kids on the side of the road, and they can observe me not running them over.
Not that a Civic would do that much damage anyway.
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Comment by Anonymous
Just a quick comment to remind you people that writing a comment isn't so hard, and my self-esteem would be all the better if you did so every now and again.
Love you lots,
Nick