Random Compliments

I was at Walgreen's buying spumante to get me through the evening, which is going to be long and exhausting. Sometimes, you need something sweet and bubbly. Anyway, the cashier had to see my ID because they card everyone, and she commented that I don't look my age. I thanked her and joked a little about the preventative cost of wrinkle creams, and moved on with my evening. A few weeks ago a man approached me in the grocery store and told me I was beautiful, before shyly returning to his shopping without another word.

Compliments are awesome. Compliments from a stranger are doubly awesome. They don't stand to gain anything out of it. My boyfriend is very good about the compliments and I know they're utterly sincere. He does them very well (one of his favorites is to call me a rocket scientist, which is the best because being pretty is fine, but knowing he thinks I'm brilliant is the best). But they are part of the fabric of our relationship - reminding each other that we think the other is smart/funny/attractive etc is just good relationship habits.

Strangers don't have that. I didn't compliment her and thus she was returning it. Nope, she just said it. I try really hard to give compliments to people when I believe them. I tell women I don't know when I like their hair/shoes/bag all the time. As a gender, we've been told that it's normal to look at every other woman as competition. I don't believe that and have been on the receiving end of such treatment and can tell you that it's no fun. But as nice as a compliment from a man is, a compliment from another woman will make your whole day better. Add a spring in your step. If women could stop looking at each other as competition, imagine how much more civil a world we would live in. Then we could turn out competitive sights where they belong - to men, who still make 20 cents on the dollar more than we do.

Random compliments to strangers today => pay raises in the future.