It distresses me to see people nervous and uncomfortable and I try (at least I think I do) to say things and do things in awkward situations that might put others at ease when they've said or done something that didn't go quite as planned. I even laugh at jokes that are not particularly funny to save the joke teller from mortification. Because I've walked in those shoes (well over a mile I might add, with music playing in the background), I'm sensitive to the embarrassment or nervousness that others might be feeling.
Tuesday, while in the waiting room of the spa I visit sometimes (I was going for an eyebrow wax), I noticed the woman sitting across from me was looking very sad and out of sorts. Maybe a friend gave her a spa gift card or something and she decided to use it. She just seemed nervous or uncomfortable, or both. Anyway, I smiled at her and started reading a stupid magazine (it's a local magazine, pretentious at best).
Her aesthetician or masseuse came to get her from the waiting room, and as she stood up, she tripped over her own feet and did an almost tumble. I could tell she was embarrassed and my knee-jerk reaction was to make her feel better immediately, so I quickly made up a story. I said, "I did that today at work, I'm such a klutz." I hadn't done the near face plant to the floor at work, but she didn't know that and I needed to make her feel better. This complete stranger, who for all I know, could be a serial killer. I have a compulsion to do whatever it takes to relieve the stress others are feeling in public. I would have offered to buy her a new car or house if I were independently wealthy (which of course, I'm not), just to take away her awkwardness and make her feel good.
She smiled at me as she left the waiting area and maybe my little white lie helped, maybe she knows I was making it up but appreciated the effort. I don't know. Why do I do this? I'll use my blanket answer for all of these internal questions: Because I'm neurotic. That seems to cover it.
--Fortuitous Observer
