On Complimenting Strangers

Unexpected inspiration.

Hi friends.

These past few months I had very deliberately started tracking interactions with strangers in my notebook. First because I had been alone in the woods most days so any interaction at all stood out and then I was on the road for a few days and on high alert for newness and finally later because I had landed back in my vibrant city where everyone was so funny and living in the present tense.

For example there were the neighbors up the road in Asheville who talked to me about which fruit trees the bears liked on the block, and I wrote down pears in my notebook.

And then there was the young woman who fell flat on her chest in the pool beneath the waterfall in South Carolina and we both helplessly watched as her sunglasses floated away and I could not stop thinking about how dirty her shirt got.

On the day I got back to New Orleans, on a very hot day, an old man told me to “stay cool, baby” in the most perfect, brief exchange at sunset. It was like giving each other a peace sign, but with words.

These are all just notes. These are my notes. These things seemed worth remembering. Why not just write shit down? It only takes a second.