It is night right now.
I went outside for a smoke.
It is very cold.
Not for the first time, the cold gets my brain working. It's like a thermistor that way. Or, yes, Discworld's Ankh-Morpork's City Watch's Sergeant Detritus' brain.
This time, somehow, it made me think about compliments I have received over the years.
I have received a lot of compliments in my lifetime. This is not bragging, mind, it's just the way people go around. They compliment each other. I do that too, sometimes. However, only a few of said compliments I can still remember.
Three, in fact.
Here they are. In a chronological order. And, as it turns out, ascending impact.
One was from my mother. She once called me 'spartan.' This was some time after I moved away from her to go to college. I rarely went home. And, yes, my lifestyle changed quite drastically from the time I lived with her. If you happen to see me on the street, or worse, in my room, 'spartan' is probably among the last things that will come to mind. Imagine King Leonidas in the movie "300". Done? Now, I'm very nearly the exact opposite of that. I don't have a great beard, I'm really fat, and I don't walk around in leather briefs (not in public, at least). But I do have a somewhat austere outlook of life - if I do say so myself - and as such, I was glad when she called me 'spartan'. I am continually trying to live up to that name.
Another was from a senior of mine. A friend. I can't remember the setting in which he said this to me, but he called me 'asexual'. And I was pleased. It brought a smile to my face. I wonder, what does that say about me?
The third, and the one that I felt very, very honored to have received, was from my brother. Guess what he called me?
He called me 'Mycroft'. As in 'Holmes'.
For those of you who don't know, Mycroft Holmes is the older brother of the more well-known Sherlock Holmes, the great consulting detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was played in more recent times by Robert Downey Jr. and Benedict Cumberbatch, among others.
Of course, some might think that my brother was just trying to call himself 'Sherlock' in a roundabout way. And make no mistake, he is smart. And he is good. I would not mind if indeed that was what he was saying. But, if you've read or seen some of the stories, it was evident that Mycroft was way cleverer than Sherlock. I choose to believe my brother knew about this.
My little brother was not timid to say, "I'm good. But you're better."
And I consider it the greatest honor I have received.
I'm inclined to think it the greatest honor I will ever receive, at least from men.
But enough about me. How about you? Have you ever been moved deeply by a simple compliment? Would you like to tell me about it?
