We Just Don’t Know What Each Other is Going Through

We never know what’s going on with those around us, or how things will impact them…

This morning I went to Home Depot to pick up some “stuff’ and inquire about returning paint for refund – a middle-aged black female behind the returns counter informed me I could return paint for a refund.

Following up, I asked her if that refund also applied to ‘opened’ paint in either one or five gallon containers – she asked me to please wait while she called some subject matter expert somewhere else in the building.

While still on the phone with the subject matter expert, she asked me a series of questions:

Is the paint less than a year old? Yes.

Has the paint been contaminated? No. 

Has the paint been kept above freezing temperatures? Yes.

Was the paint ‘colored’? Yes. ( I took colored to mean mixed paint to obtain a specific color).

She ended her call and informed me I could get a refund for the returned paint – I thanked her and started to step away – I turned back to her, smiled and said, “Isn’t it great that ‘colored’ means something very different than it used to?”    

She laughed out loud, caught her breath, teared up and then cried – I put my hand on her forearm (mistake, I know) and asked her if she was okay – she quickly regained her composure, put her hand on mine and assured me she’d be fine – I thanked her again and walked away. 

I can only imagine what went through her mind in that split second when she considered the term “colored” and the volumes of awful implications it carries –  we never know what’s going on with those around us, or how things will impact them…

Don’t hate – don’t be a racist – don’t pretend our nation didn’t systematically do horrible things – don’t fall for the false narrative that addressing those things, and learning from them won’t help us be better.

Be kind.