Always Assume People Are Nice

This morning I went to get a much overdue pedicure. Since I don’t get a manicure I am able to needlepoint while getting my toes done. I am working on a seat for one of my game table chairs. The canvas is not painted and I am freehand stitching it. I was just working on the back ground, which is huge and very boring.

You know when you go get a pedicure at a place where everyone who works there speaks a language you don’t you can still figure out when they are talking about you. So as the various nail techs where talking across the whole shop and looking at me I asked the sweet woman working on my nails if they had any questions for me.

She blushed and shook her head in embarrassment. Then one of the bossier techs said, “Yes, what are you making?” They were just curious about my big white canvas and what in the world it might become.

I unrolled the whole thing and showed them, explaining it would become the cover for a seat on a chair. One by one, as they finished with their customers they came up and looked more closely at my needlepoint. They said things like, “I don’t think I could do that.”

I told them that what they do with nails is way harder than needlepoint and they absolutely could do it. When my feet were in the dryer I had two different women come sit by me and I taught them basket weave while I worked and my polish dried. It seems like I can’t go anywhere and not teach people something.

Another customer who walked out with me said, “You were so brave to call them out when they were talking about you.”

I nicely said to her, “I wasn’t brave. They weren’t being malicious. Their language sounds different to us, but they are so nice, like most people. They were just curious, but too afraid to ask.”

She went on, “Oh, I assume they are saying something not nice.”

I wanted to say to her, “That says everything about you and nothing about them,” but I didn’t. I didn’t want to stoop to her level.