I want to share a moment I often think of, but never openly talk about.
I can’t remember her face or her clothes, but I remember her voice and the delicate hand on my knee as I sat cross-legged next to her on my friend’s living room floor.
I was in my early 20s, employed, doing a bit of writing and a lot of thinking, upset with the way the world was run but not really doing anything about it, almost like I was still collecting data, but maybe I was just scared.
She was older and wiser.
When I spoke, she would pause as if to think about what I said. As if to show me she was thinking about what I said. We were playing some trivia game, and when I couldn’t answer a question about politics, everyone guffawed, but she took a different tack.
“That’s amazing! That you’re able to keep yourself outside of all that junk, it’s like your mind is clean, completely untouched. What a wonderful place to be.”
I didn’t know who she was or where she came from — a friend of a friend sort of thing — but I was crushing on her kindness.
She made me feel big, proud, and eager to dive into my “clean” mind.
I’ve since corroded my mind like the rest of us. You kind of have to at some point, once you realize that the shuffling of paper in Washington is more dangerous than a hatchet.
But I still revere my own original thoughts more than any magazine article. And I still reflect on this exchange with my nameless, faceless, kind-hearted mentor with joy and wonder.
We had spent a couple of hours together on a living room carpet, probably exchanged a few hundred words, but she is remembered, and those words are appreciated.
When we think about making our mark, we think about becoming something else — a teacher, a senator, an actor, an influencer — but really, all we gotta do is be present and kind with the people we meet.
Being present allows us to see them where they’re at. And being kind allows us to stay with them forever.