On Gratitude and Paradox.
My student Andrei called me today and said that if I wanted to cancel our 6 o’clock class I was totally welcome to do it and he would understand it just fine. The reason—it had been raining cats and dogs all day long and because he didn’t want me to get a cold on the way to his house I had an option of rescheduling the lesson for tomorrow.
Andrei is a very interesting man, a man of paradox—he’s been very enthusiastically calling me several times a week for two months making appointments for the next day and when the next day finally comes he inevitably calls again and says that although he is very very sorry to report it but his job is holding him busy again. Or his friends. Or a business trip to Russia. Or the bad cough he had gotten the other day. Or his mom’s birthday. Or practically just anything…
According to my diary notes the last meeting we had was on the 1st of March, but somehow it didn’t stop me from saying ‘sure, let’s have it on Saturday at 10 o’clock’. I love it when people show that they care, so even though I could pretty much guess what in fact this call was all about I decided to let him be noble instead of pathetic and gave the guy my heartfelt thanks. Gratitude is a wonderful thing—it makes both people happy and by it they become even more grateful then in the beginning.
Paradoxically, once I hung up the receiver I grabbed my dog and my jacket and ran outside—I love rains and am not afraid to get a cold because of them.
PS. I was somewhere in the middle of typing this all as Andrei called again and asked to reschedule the class for 11 a.m. Here we go already. Will see what happens tomorrow.