Hmmm

For starters, humans are pack animals not herd animals.

Take a pack of wolves and then a herd of deer. We don’t think of ourselves this way, but humans and human society are much more akin to the wolves than we are to the deer. We often don’t think so. But even the lowest of the low often have a pecking order within the pack they are trying to protect, or a wound they are nursing that keeps them on the periphery in some way. I think back to Marcy in grade school, who was a notorious tattletale to the teacher or the coworkers who reported to our boss that another coworker took a two-hour lunch while the the boss was out of town — that was unwittingly displaying pack behavior by protecting our order beneath the alpha.

But there are people who aren’t this.

They are the people at the social gathering who seem genuinely interested in our story although we’re not in a place to help them at that particular time.

The people who bring by food when we are sick. Or who never ever say a bad word about us (gossip) to other people.

Who give more than they take.

They are sincere people. Genuine people. And caring people.

I remember this woman named Jen. We were at a party and she remembered meeting me at a gathering two years earlier. She remembered my name, that I had two kids, remembered the details about those kids, and she spent 15 minutes asking me questions about everything and genuinely seemed interested. The sincerity, authenticity and kindness that coursed through her was so strong that it was palpable. Ten years later I can still recall how that felt, and also how she was like that with everyone else at the party. She wasn’t putting on an act and didn’t have an agenda – that’s just who she was. Later, I commented to (my now ex) about her and she said, “Oh yeah, that’s Jen, she’s just the kindest person. Everyone in our social club loves her.”

I love these rare souls so much. How can the rest of us ever repay someone like that?

We can’t.

And those are my very favorite people to be around.