I think it’s totally stupefying that I can volunteer to kick a perpetrator’s butt on a friend’s behalf and yet I try to avoid confrontations when someone is bothering me directly. I know staying angry over someone else’s problem ain’t right, but watching that someone else get treated like a doormat isn’t right, either. Ahem. On to less explosive topics…

“Everybody Dislikes Evangelicals” and “What Conversion Is(n’t)” - very interesting, thought-provoking articles. Check ‘em out.

And now for a Pre-Valentine’s Day story:

We’ve had a crew of painters working on our complex for the past few months, and I think me and Miriam are the only residents who actually talk to these guys. And make ‘em treats, too. Cookies. Painters need sugar once in a while, too, right? We’ve made them cookies twice now, and it frankly gives me warm fuzzies to do a nice deed for people on occasion. It doesn’t hurt that they like chocolate, either!

Yesterday someone rang the doorbell, and I found one of the painting bosses standing there with a bag in one hand. “Thanks for making all those cookies for us,” he says, holding out the bag to me.

Cookies. He’d brought me - us - a platter of Valentine’s Day cookies.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” he adds with a grin before walking away.

Miriam was delightfully surprised when I told her about it. And me? Well, it went beyond just making my day. It was one of the best “Thank yous” I’ve ever gotten.