So the other day I was at a book store. Tattered Cover in Denver, a great place.
I was browsing through the travel section, and the guy next to me told his young son to check out 3 MPH by Polly Letofsky. He picked it up and was browing through it, and I said, “That’s a great book.”
The kid didn’t appear to be into it that much, and put it back on the shelf. The dad said, “I read a book about a guy in the seventies who walked across America, can’t remember the name…”
“A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s it!”
He then turned to his son and said, “Can you imagine walking across America? All the things you would see. Would kind of restore your faith in humanity, I’d think.”
Now at this moment I was stuck.
Do I say that I just did that very thing? Or do I not say anything?
I didn’t say anything, as I hate talking about myself quite a lot. But I’m thinking that I should have.
My problem is that I don’t want to sound like I have an ego. Like I think I’m special. But first, that was a pretty targeted statement and I absolutely did have something of value to add. I’m certain that they would have been glad to hear about the walk, but I just froze for some reason.
Second, I need to realize that if I know I’m not coming from an egotistical standpoint, I shouldn’t hesitate to talk about it. I know I’m not full of myself, that’s all that should really matter I guess. People could take what I say a million ways, but only I really know where it is actually coming from.
Next time something like this happens, I’m going to talk. I think if I’m uncertain about whether or not I should add something to any conversation from now on, I’m just going to do it. I think I would rather try to add something and have them not care then not say anything at all. Yeah. That’s what I’m going to do.
Next time…
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