“Years ago, someone said that I was a character actor locked in a leading man’s body. I thought that was a wonderful compliment.” – Tom Skerritt
+ I’ve mentioned the Daily Sparkles book on the blog before. Yesterday, one of the “daily sparkles” was: “Someone complimenting you in a way that makes you feel seen.” I had just read the actor Tom Skerritt’s obituary and his quote above, put me in mind of what this daily sparkle really means. Obviously, that particular compliment meant so much to Tom Skerritt that he never forgot it. He repeated it in interviews. It’s easy to say, “Cute outfit” or “You’re funny” and no one hates to get any compliments, but a really well thought-out, genuine compliment about what makes someone unique and special and makes them stand out – that kind of a compliment will be one that a person will keep for a lifetime. What a gift!
+ The other day I used Claude (AI) to format pictures on to a sheet of paper. I wanted four photos to be on the same page. At first, I went to Word to try to format it, but then it dawned on me to try to use Claude for the task. Claude did it in less than a minute, perfectly. I was telling my kids about this, and my one son seemed genuinely shocked that I managed to do this. “Good job, Mom,” he said with a noticeable tinge of shock and awe in his voice. “Why are you surprised?” I snapped back, feeling a little bit annoyed and patronized, but then I thought about the many, many times as my kids have grown up, how utterly impressed (and sometimes even surprised) I am to see them easily navigate tasks like getting car loans, setting up overseas travel, and even managing to put their laundry away neatly. I suppose all generations have a little bit of smugness about our own “special” abilities and wisdom, and we sometimes get antonished to see that there is a lot of crossover in the territory of being humans. Another Tom Skerritt quote seems apropos to this point: “I’m not a big star in Hollywood. I’m not a big star anywhere. I’m a human.”
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.