A two-minute interaction that has no business living rent free in my head. And yet.
Today was kiddo’s first day at a new school. A school we have been on a waitlist for
for a year and a half. A school I have approximately one thousand feelings about
that I am actively trying not to let become his problem because this is a good
opportunity and we waited a long time for it and I am a supportive and functional
parent who is absolutely fine.
I am fine.
We walk in. Kiddo is wearing a shirt that says Boulder, Colorado. Auntie Ali got it
for him when we flew out to see a concert last year. It’s a good shirt. Nice color. Little
camper graphic. Looks like the kind of shirt a person wears because they’ve been
to Boulder, Colorado and would like you to know that about them.
Kiddo has not been to Boulder, Colorado. He is eight. He just likes the shirt.
Sitting in the lobby is a man in a Hawaiian watermelon shirt. I recognize him from
the school advertisements. One of the top people. Important enough to be in the
brochure. There he is. Watermelons everywhere.
He looks at kiddo.
Oh hey buddy. I like your shirt. You’ve been to Boulder, Colorado?
Kiddo looks at him.
No.
And then watermelon man says — and I want you to really sit with this —
Yeah. Me neither.
I’m sorry?
You complimented a child on a shirt for a place you have never been and have no
connection to. Not I went to college there. Not my sister lives there. Not I’ve always
wanted to go. Just. Yeah. Me neither. As if that explains the compliment. As if that
closes the loop.
It does not close the loop.
I understand complimenting a location shirt because you’ve been there. You
recognize it. You have a feeling about it. That makes sense. That is a normal human
interaction.
I do not understand complimenting a location shirt for a place you yourself have
never been and apparently have no particular feelings about.
Unless.
Unless watermelon man has been searching. Looking at every location shirt that
passes through his lobby waiting for the one that speaks to him. The one that
makes him point and say that. That place. I have never been there but something
in me recognizes it. Something in me knows.
Maybe Boulder, Colorado is watermelon man’s place and he just hasn’t gotten there
yet. Maybe I owe him more credit than I’m giving him.
Maybe I need to find my own shirt first. The shirt for the place I’ve never been but
somehow already know. Then I would understand where watermelon man was
coming from.
I’ll keep looking.
Or, you know, the likely explanation is a gentleman being kind to a child by complimenting his
attire in a new school to make him feel more welcome. But my brain at the time wasn’t having
any of that logical nonsense.
In the meantime kiddo walked into his new school and didn’t look back and I stood
in the lobby being absolutely fine about it.
I’m fine.
Not bad for a Tuesday.