Today’s Holidays: National Compliment Day, National Peanut Butter Day, Beer Can Appreciation Day, Global Belly Laugh Day, Clashing Clothes Day, Talk Like A Grizzled Prospector Day
Fact of the Day: The average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating from high school.
Website of the Day: https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/aug/21/style-clash-how-matchy-mismatchy-became-the-new-matchy-matchy
There’s this writing seminar class called Reading Minds. We all have to take a writing seminar our freshman year at Princeton, and I ranked Reading Minds as my second choice. It’s all about the idea of knowing what others are thinking and feeling without verbal communication. While I got my first choice writing seminar, Miniatures, a class all about the “miniature” phenomenon and both the power and allure of mini things, I found myself still thinking about the concept behind Reading Minds in these past few days. Can we truly ever know what is going through someone’s mind? We can make guesses, but without verbal confirmation, a prediction remains just that: a guess. Yet there is some beauty in the unknown.
When I was younger, my brother and I used to choose an imaginary superpower to have. Jake usually chose superspeed or transport, in which he could transport himself to anywhere in the world in seconds. I would always choose reading minds. I wanted to know what others were thinking, perhaps because of my curiosity or maybe because I thought it would make life much simpler. There would be no guessing nor thinking about our guess nor contemplating how someone else feels. We would just know. But now, when I look back on my chosen superpower, I no longer think that I chose right. Yes, if we knew what others were thinking, it would deplete the complexity of life, maybe even making our day to day ventures easier, but isn’t there some excitement in the challenge of guessing and the state of the unknown?
When you give a compliment to someone, it may be a spontaneous thought: something you feel or see or like in the moment, and so you let the person know. You might not think much of it, but here’s where this idea of reading minds comes in. Because we do not know what others are thinking, we also may not know the impact that our compliment has. I’m sure we’ve all received one of these special compliments before, in which we were not having the best day, and then someone gives us a compliment, one that may be as simple as our hair looks really great or our shoes are pretty cool or maybe something deeper, like we’re always so kind or positive or compassionate. And then suddenly, our not so very great day becomes just that much better. The power of compliments relies on not knowing what others are thinking. Whenever we give a compliment, we’ll never know to what extent our compliment impacted the person. So take the time today to tell somebody whatever is on your mind, even if the person standing before you is a stranger. Do you like their necklace? Do you notice their carefree spirit and smile? Reach out to your friends and loved ones, and let them know the specific ways in which you appreciate them. What do you love about them? How have they impacted you?
I will not be taking the Reading Minds writing seminar spring semester, but I feel that it is an idea we should all contemplate, especially its relation to why compliments are so mutually dynamic and beneficial. There exists this extraordinary connection between the complimenter and the receiver, yet still a gap, a magical and unresolved space between the two, in which the complimenter will never know how their words impacted the receiver. And if we really think about it, this is characteristic of the world and the relationships that we build within it. Everything that we do matters: all of our decisions and actions. When we give a compliment, it matters. The unknown makes things matter.
Happy National Compliment Day! How did you celebrate? Comment below or send in a picture to nationalholidaymovement@gmail.com #BeHappy #GiveACompliment