The Kindness of Strangers

Sometimes a few kind words from a stranger are all you need to perk up a Sunday.

Not that yesterday was a bad Sunday. Quite the contrary, in fact. We began the day by attending the film festival awards in East Hampton. Alec Baldwin was there but he's so ubiquitous in the Hamptons this is almost not worth mentioning. Except that I did.

Before they began I went across the street to get a cup of coffee. Starbucks was jammed due to the festival but in true Hamptons style the people behind the counter were slow and country-like.

“I like your outfit!” the woman behind the counter said as I poured soy milk in my joe.

It caught me off guard. I was wearing a t-shirt, high boots, and tight jeans. Still, though, I took it.

"Thank you."

Later that night I was back in the city having dinner at Galaxy when a couple of businessman came in and sat at the table next to mine. I was just finishing the writing I had been doing and thus switched off the computer at nearly the moment they sat down.

"We weren't reading it," one of them said.

Which in effect was saying that had it been on they would have been.

Some days I just go for it, but others I think twice before saying random little things to strangers.

Who wants to be bothered? is usually my rationale for not doing it.

But as I learned in the heat of yesterday's quiet, I did.