Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Validation

Today I am most grateful for validation. This has nothing to do with my normal blog posts or my Project 365, but I felt it was necessary to share. I stopped by Wally-World after work today to pick up something for dinner. The girl that checked me out was very pleasant and mentioned she had only a half hour until it was time to go home. I remarked that the last half hour is always the longest 30 minutes of the day. We went back and forth a couple times and by the time I left, we were giggling like a couple of old friends. See, I think what people need sometimes more than anything else is someone to commiserate, someone to agree that they have legitimate gripes, to validate their opinions about the world around them. Now, I am in no way suggesting that it's a good idea to do this all the time or to encourage excessively negative people, but when Jesus said to love your neighbor, I'm pretty sure it was a partial endorsement of this commiseration I am talking about. This world is big and scary and you know what? Growing up is hard. It's a big complicated mess that often makes little or no sense, isn't fair, is even cruel. So how else do we make it through than by relating to those around us? What better way to get validation that I'm not the only one scared and confused and tired? Some days, all you need is someone to pat you on the back and tell you that yes - your situation is crappy and the jerks who imposed it upon you are truly plotting against you. In that simple reassurance, a relationship, however brief, emerges and blooms.

That's just my thought for the day. I don't know that I'll be able to photograph that idea but I had to share. Photos to follow later dear friends.

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