cygnoir.net

To be honest, I don’t want to write much of anything right now. My evening became a comedy of errors as soon as I left work and attempted to get home on Muni.  After an hour’s wait and only two overfilled trains, I took an inbound to Embarcadero so I could try there. I hopped onto a train that called itself an “N-Judah ‘B’” which I had never seen before, but it had N-Judah in the name, so I took a gamble. As soon as it pulled out of the station, it changed to an S shuttle. So I got off at the next stop and waited another 20 minutes for an actual N-Judah. It was just as packed as the two earlier trains, but I shoved myself on. Then I proceeded to have a coughing fit right before my stop. The people around me must have thought my head was going to pop off.  I covered my face with my hands and my scarf and hoped for the best.

At least I picked up some gluten-free groceries at Andronico’s, and ran into friends while doing so.  That was a nice, unexpected surprise.  I now have gluten-free bagels to try, among other treats! 

Now FunkyPlaid is brewing some herbal tea with honey for my throat, and I will play the weird and wonderful Majesty of Colors game with Zen curled up next to me until I fall asleep.

Today I received a compliment of such magnitude that I can barely internalize it, hours later.  It caused me to think deeply about self-worth, and how we decide whether or not we “deserve” compliments.

I put that in quotes because I wonder if it is relevant what we decide about someone else’s opinion.  A genuine compliment is paid regardless of the agreement of the recipient.

For much of my life, I have struggled with the concept of what I deserve versus what I receive.  With few exceptions, I have been what some have called blessed with good fortune, and that, coupled with a strong Roman Catholic upbringing, comes no small amount of concern that I have not earned it.

Yet we earn compliments without having to agree with them. It would be cleaner if we agreed, of course; it is rude to respond to a compliment with a negative statement, not to mention pointless (unless one is angling for the follow-up reaffirmation). Does the compliment, like the insult, say more about the giver than the recipient?

This short film called “Validation” made me smile, laugh, and cry.  Plus it stars TJ Thyne, who plays Hodgins on “Bones”! Thanks, Chief Happiness Officer!

(No longer able to be embedded. Grr! Watch it here.)

This piece on the Los Angeles Public Library called “Safe Haven” could have just as easily been done about the San Francisco Public Library. It’s worth a look. (via librarian.net)

wordle.net does cygnoir.net,
originally uploaded by cygnoir.

I could waste quite a bit of time on Wordle.