> Total agreement here.
>
> However, while usually I do not give such people a second thought, I regret that exhaustion and stress make me strangely vulnerable to such cruelties. Thankfully, I also become more vulnerable to kindness. :)
>
> Best,
> Dagmar
>
> > The popular misconception among bigots is that by tearing someone down, they somehow build themselves up. I think that is what happened to Dagmar at the convenience store. I don't think people like that deserve a second thought.
> >
> > As for the road rage we all encounter from time to time, I wonder if the offenses that set them off aren't usually just in their own imagination.
> > I don't think they are worth a second thought either.
> > Howard

I was going to post in the other thread, but somehow this thought seemed out of place there:

My most memorable contact with a stranger was fifteen years ago. I was working in a small, counter only store in Portside (a "festival marketplace" in Toledo) and a couple a few years older than me, if that, ran by, holding hands. As they were running, the female half of them caught my eye and smiled at me -- not the kind of "Hi, Stranger" smile you usually get if someone is doing something goofy in public, but a genuine, as if she knew me but didn't have time to stop, almost conspiratorial smile.

I still remember the warmth she brought to that winter evening just by changing the light in her eyes.

Mou"I know it sounds all Chicken-Soupy, but it happened"sie