1/21/17

i'm thankful for my pharmacist, who knows me and grabs my prescriptions from their cubby as soon as she sees me without asking my name and also remembers that i'm married and asks if i'm picking up for d. i'm thankful to address her by name, which makes both of us happy. i'm thankful to talk to her about the weather and am thankful that she was happy it had stopped raining and wasn't very cold outside. i'm thankful that i told her about walking home from band practice in the rain the previous night and that she told me about how the driveway at her babysitter's house is prone to puddling and how when she picked up her kids after work, they were jumping in the puddle and splashing her. i'm thankful that she was talking about how this was annoying but that her smile also showed how it made her happy. i'm thankful for our conversation about how wet shoes and socks don't bother kids but are the most miserable thing when you're an adult.

i'm thankful that after the pharmacy, i biked over to the supermarket to pick up milk. i'm thankful that a lot of the bike parking was unused because it was immersed in a huge puddle, so we were all pushing into the other parking. i'm thankful while locking up my bike to have made a joke about it to a little old lady in a rain jacket who was unlocking her bike. i'm thankful that she laughed and started to go, but then turned to me and said, in a slight accent that was hard to place, "i noticed your helmet." 

i'm thankful that she told me about how she grew up in the netherlands, where everyone rode bikes but no one wore helmets. i'm thankful she told me about how she doesn't like wearing helmets, though i'm thankful she was wearing one. i'm thankful that she asked me about my helmet, which is a dark grey skateboard helmet, and how i told her that it was a bit heavier than a standard bike helmet but was comfortable and hopefully provided good protection. 

i'm thankful that she smiled and paused and said, "i noticed your helmet because it reminded me of when i was 4 in the netherlands, when they were occupied by the germans" and i'm thankful to have gasped said "oh my god, do you mean my helmet makes me look like a nazi???" and i'm thankful that she smiled and said that yes, it looked nearly identical besides the air holes in the top of the helmet. i'm thankful to have expressed horror that my helmet looked like a nazi and am thankful that she touched my arm and told me that she knew i wasn't a nazi and didn't think anyone but other old people from the netherlands would see the helmet and think that, but just that she had noticed it and thought it was interesting. i'm thankful that i told her i will get some brightly colored stickers to affix to the helmet. i'm thankful we had a bit more small talk before wishing each other a good day and going our separate ways.

i'm thankful for the way that when the macro forces of the world become overwhelming, there is still solace to take in small good things. i'm thankful for a 76 year old woman who was asked what she would be doing at 12pm yesterday who said "i'll be at the gym so i can live to vote trump out." i'm thankful for baby feminists fighting for kindness with their smiles. i'm thankful to know that young people want a different, better world than the one we have now and i'm thankful to hope that with them we can work to make that world and live in it together. i'm thankful that nothing in life lasts forever.