Friday afternoon I was at the post office; there were about 10 people in line waiting to deal with a real person. I was at the automated mailing machine about 6 feet away.
The mundane atmosphere was broken, kind of like birds react when a hawk is near, I witnessed a woman turn to the woman behind her and say evenly, “You think my a— is fat? Well…I’ve have been trying to lose some weight.”
I knew something wasn’t quite right. Then, I witnessed the line shifting. The woman in front of the woman who spoke turned to her and said, “I think you are beautiful, come a head of me in line.” And, it went up the line each person acknowledging the beauty of this woman letting her forward in line.
It was rather magical how people rallied around this woman who had been very personally verbally attacked — as I drove away in my car tears welled up in my eyes.
I was so touched by the kindness of these strangers and the positive way the verbally attacked woman responded. I was also saddened to think of the pain the attacker must be in to cause her to attack a total stranger who was peacefully minding her own business. She was closed down to any interaction as I walked by.
There was a grace there that afternoon in the post office. That is all.
